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Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995)

Notices

Bargaining Council for the Furniture Manufacturing Industry

Extension to Non-Parties of the Main Collective Agreement

Chapter 1

9. Terms of Employment

 

9.1 Ordinary hours of work
9.1.1 Save as is otherwise provided for in this Agreement, no employer shall require or permit an employee—
9.1.1.1 to work for more than 44 hours, excluding meal intervals, in any one week;
9.1.1.2 to work for more than 9 hours, excluding meal intervals, on any one day.
9.1.2 All hours of work on any day, exclusive of meal intervals, shall be consecutive.

 

9.2 Intervals

An employer shall grant to each of his employees—

9.2.1 a rest interval of 10 minutes as nearly as practicable in the middle of each morning and afternoon work -period, which shall he regarded as part of ordinary hours of work;
9.2.2 a lunch interval of between 30 minutes and 60 minutes after a continuous period of work of not more than 5 hours, which shall not be regarded as part of ordinary hours of work.

 

9.3 Overtime
9.3.1 All time worked in excess of an establishment's ordinary number of hours of work in a week shall be regarded as overtime.
9.3.2 An employer may request an employee to work overtime. This request shall not unreasonably be rejected and the employee shall not be permitted to work overtime in excess of 15 hours in any one pay week. All employees shall be given at least 24 hours' prior notice of overtime to be worked, provided that employers and employees may agree to work emergency overtime at shorter notice. For overtime to be worked in excess of 15 hours in any pay week, prior permission shall be obtained from the Council with proper written motivation.
9.3.3 An employee shall not be entitled to payment for overtime unless he has completed the weekly ordinary number of hours of his establishment, unless the time lost is owing to illness for which he must produce a medical certificate on the day he resumes work.
9.3.4 In order to calculate overtime—
9.3.4.1 Paid sick leave;
9.3.4.2 Paid public holidays;
9.3.4.3 Paid study leave;
9.3.4.4 Paid family responsibility leave; and
9.3.4.5 Paid trade union representative leave are to be considered as paid ordinary hours of work.
9.3.5 Motor vehicle drivers and their crew shall not be required or permitted to work overtime—
9.3.5.1 in excess of 15 hours per day, which includes ordinary hours of work, overtime hours, lunch intervals and tea intervals; and
9.3.5.2 40 hours in any one week from Monday to Saturday.
9.3.6 All motor vehicle drivers and motor vehicle crew shall receive overtime payment equal to 1.5 x their ordinary hourly rate of pay and 2 x their ordinary hourly rate of pay on Sundays, irrespective of the overtime hours worked by such drivers and crew.

 

9.4 Shift work
9.4.1 No normal shift shall exceed nine hours per day or 44 hours per week.
9.4.2 Not less than six hours shall elapse between successive shifts of an employee.
9.4.3 Where an employee's ordinary shift or part of it is worked on a public holiday, the employee concerned shall be remunerated for such shift as follows:
9.4.3.1 If the major portion of such shift is worked on a public holiday, the entire shift shall be deemed to have been worked on such day and the employee shall be remunerated for work on a public holiday;
9.4.3.2 if the lesser portion of such shift is worked on such day, the entire shift shall be deemed to have been worked on a weekday, and the employee shall be remunerated at his ordinary rate of remuneration.
9.4.4 Time worked by an employee after the completion of his normal shift shall be regarded as overtime and be paid for in accordance with the prescribed rates provided that the establishment's weekly ordinary hours of work have been exceeded.

 

9.5 Public Holidays
9.5.1 All public holidays proclaimed in terms of the Public Holidays Act, 1994 (Act 36 of 1994), shall be recognised as paid public holidays, except where a public holiday falls on a day which is not a normal working day.
9.5.2 In the event of the services of an employee being terminated by an employer seven working days or less prior to Good Friday the employee shall be entitled to the payment of wages for Good Friday and Family Day.
9.5.3 In the event of the services of an employee being terminated by an employer seven working days or less prior to the annual closing date in terms of this Agreement, the employee shall be entitled to payment of wages for all the public holidays during the annual closure.
9.5.4 In the event that an official paid public holiday falls during a period in which the employer is already working short time, employees shall be paid their normal ordinary hours of work for that day, irrespective of the short time so implemented.

[Clause 9(9.5.4) substituted by section 6(1) of Notice No. 333, GG43447, dated 19 June 2020]

 

9.6 Annual closure
9.6.1 Annual closure shall be for a period of 15 consecutive working days between 1 December of each year and 31 January of the following year or as otherwise prescribed by the Council from time to time.
9.6.2 During any period of annual closure, no employer shall require or permit an employee to perform work and no employee shall undertake work, whether for remuneration, reward or not.
9.6.3 If the annual closure dates are prescribed by the Council, any establishment may apply to the Council in writing on the prescribed application form for exemption from the prescribed annual closure dates, if the establishment believes that extraordinary circumstances exist that may warrant the granting of an exemption. Such an application for exemption must be supported by not less than 75% of the establishment's employees who are covered by the scope of this Agreement.

 

9.7 Paid sick-leave and proof of incapacity
9.7.1 "Sick-leave cycle" means a period of thirty six (36) months' employment with the same employer immediately following:
9.7.1.1 an employee's commencement of employment; or
9.7.1.2 the completion of that employee's prior sick-leave cycle.
9.7.2 Paid sick-leave is limited to 10 working days for every 12 months of employment and to 30 working days for every sick-leave cycle.
9.7.3 Notwithstanding the provisions of clause 9.7.2, during the first six months of employment, an employee's entitlement to sick-leave may be limited by an employer to one day's paid sick-leave for every 26 days worked.
9.7.4 During an employee's first sick-leave cycle, an employer may reduce the employee's entitlement to sick leave in terms of clause 9.7.2 by the number of days' sick-leave taken in terms of clause 9.7.3.
9.7.5 An employer must pay an employee for a days' sick-leave—
9.7.5.1 the wage the employee would ordinarily have received for work on that day;
9.7.5.2 on the employee's usual pay day; and
9.7.5.3 paid sick-leave granted by the establishment must be regarded as ordinary hours worked towards filling and/or completing the establishment's maximum ordinary weekly hours of work.
9.7.6 An employee who is absent from his workplace due to incapacity for the first three individual days in a sick-leave cycle shall be paid sick-leave irrespective of whether such an employee produces a medical certificate or not. An employee may be required to present a medical certificate to his employer in order to qualify for the payment of sick-leave from the fourth individual day that he is absent from his workplace owing to incapacity in each sick-leave cycle.
9.7.7 The medical certificate shall reflect the nature and period of the employee's incapacity and shall be issued and signed by a medical practitioner, traditional healer or any other person who is certified to diagnose and treat patients and who is registered with a professional council established by an Act of Parliament.
9.7.8 if it is not reasonably practicable for an employee who lives on an employer's premises to obtain a medical certificate, the employer may not withhold payment in terms of clause 9.7.6 unless the employer provides reasonable assistance to the employee to obtain the necessary medical certificate.

 

9.8 Termination of employment
9.8.1 Notice periods

The notice periods applicable to both employers and employees in the Industry will be as follows:

9.8.1.1 During two month probationary period - one hour's notice.
9.8.1.2 Up to one year's employment (probationary period included) - one week's notice.
9.8.1.3 More than one year of employment (probationary period included) - two weeks' notice.

These notice periods are applicable provided that this shall not affect the right of an employer or employee to terminate a contract of service without any notice for any cause recognised by law as sufficient.

9.8.2 An employer and employee may agree in writing to provide for a longer period of notice, and failure to comply with such arrangement shall be a contravention of this clause.
9.8.3 An employer or employee may terminate a contract of employment without notice by paying to the employee or paying or forfeiting to the employer, as the case may be, in lieu of notice, an amount equal to not less than wages for one hour, one week or two weeks, as the case may be, or for such longer period as may be agreed upon by the employer and his employee.
9.8.4 The notice referred to above shall not run concurrently with any period of annual leave or to the extent of six weeks' absence owing to illness in any one year.

 

9.9 Absenteeism

No employee may absent himself from his work during the hours in which the establishment is open without the express permission of his employer except on account of illness and/or injuries or for causes beyond the control of such employee. An employee shall, within 24 hours of his failure to report for work, cause his employer to be notified thereof in the most expeditious manner available.

 

9.10 Short time, dismissals based on operational requirements and severance pay
9.10.1 Short Time
9.10.1.1 When, by reason of slackness of trade, shortage of raw materials or a general breakdown of plant or machinery caused by accident or other unforeseen emergency, an employer is unable to employ his employees for the number of ordinary hours of work per week usually worked in his establishment, the employer may, subject to the provisions of this clause, employ his employees on short time during, but not exceeding, the period of such slackness of trade, shortage of raw materials or general breakdown of plant or machinery: Provided that the employer:
9.10.1.1.1 has consulted with the employees concerned; and/or
9.10.1.1.2 has consulted with any shop stewards or employee representatives in the workplace concerned; and
9.10.1.1.3 has extended an invitation to the trade union office and trade union official to attend on the date and time as determined by the employer, to allow the trade union official to attend the consultation, if a trade union is active in the workplace concerned, unless short time is implemented on a specific day for that day only; and
9.10.1.1.4 shall, when short time is worked, distribute the available work amongst the employees in any section.

[Clause 9(9.10.1.1) substituted by section 6(2) of Notice No. 333, GG43447, dated 19 June 2020]

9.10.1.2 An employee who on any day reports for duty at the usual starting time of the establishment and for whom no work is available, or for whom work becomes unavailable during the course of the day, shall be paid in respect of such day an amount of not less than 4 hours' wages, unless he was notified by his employer previously that his services would not be required on the day in question.
9.10.1.3 No short time may be called for and implemented, for Mondays and Fridays, where official paid public holidays fall on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays, unless the employer has been working short time prior to such paid public holidays.

[Clause 9(9.10.1.3) inserted by section 6(3) of Notice No. 333, GG43447, dated 19 June 2020]

9.10.2 Dismissals based on operational requirements

When an employer contemplates dismissing one or more employees for reasons based on operational requirements, subject thereto that short time of less than 35 hours per week had been worked over a continuous period of at least one week, the employer shall comply with the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act 66 of 1995), as well as the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 (Act 75 of 1997), insofar as this Agreement is silent on those issues which are covered by the aforementioned Acts.

9.10.3 Standard severance pay and additional severance pay
9.10.3.1 Standard severance pay payable to employees

Severance pay of one week's normal remuneration for each completed year of service is payable: Provided that during the first year and last year of service, 6 months' or more service shall be regarded as a completed year of service;

9.10.3.2 Additional severance pay payable to employees
9.10.3.2.1 From 3 years of employment but less than 10 years of employment - an additional 1 week's normal basic wages calculated on the establishment's ordinary hours of work must be paid as a lump sum;
9.10.3.2.2 From 10 years of employment but less than 15 years of employment - an additional 2 weeks' normal basic wages calculated on the establishment's ordinary hours of work must be paid as a lump sum;
9.10.3.2.3 From 15 years of employment but less than 20 years of employment - an additional 3 weeks' normal basic wages calculated on the establishment's ordinary hours of work must be paid as a lump sum;
9.10.3.2.4 20 years or more of employment - an additional 4 weeks' normal basic wages calculated on the establishment's ordinary hours of work must be paid as a lump sum.

 

9.11 Trade union representative leave
9.11.1 For the purpose of attending training courses and/or seminars and/or meetings arranged by the trade unions which are parties to this Agreement, trade union representatives shall be entitled to 7 days' paid leave per annum and senior trade union representatives shall be entitled to 11 days' paid leave per annum. ONLY for the purpose of attending official meetings of the Bargaining Council, trade union representatives shall be entitled to additional leave for which the Council shall reimburse the trade union representative's establishment for the actual loss of working hours by the trade union representative, which shall be paid to the trade union representative by the establishment together with his normal weekly wages as if the trade union representative worked on the day he attended an official meeting of the Bargaining Council, subject to the following conditions:
9.11.1.1 The leave cycle shall commence on 1 July of each year. Leave not taken by a senior trade union representative and/or trade, union representative shall accrue to the newly elected senior trade union representative and/or trade union representative during any one leave cycle. Leave will not be cumulative or be transferable from one employer to another.
9.11.1.2 The trade union shall make the training course and/or seminar content and/or agenda of meetings available to the employer at least seven days in advance.
9.11.1.3 Prior arrangements shall be made by the trade union with an employer for the release of key personnel. Not more than 50% of elected senior trade union representatives and/or trade union representatives at any particular establishment shall attend the training course and/or seminar and/or meeting on any particular day.
9.11.1.4 The number of trade union representatives elected at any particular establishment shall be at a ratio of not more than 1 representative for every 30 trade union members.
9.11.1.5 The names of the senior trade union representatives and/or trade union representatives elected shall be conveyed to the employer by the senior trade union representative, in writing, immediately after their names are known.
9.11.1.6 The trade union shall furnish the employer with written proof that the training course and/or seminar and/or meeting for which purpose the paid leave was granted was attended by the particular senior trade union representatives and/or trade union representatives.

 

9.12 Maternity leave
9.12.1 Any female employee going on confinement shall be entitled to maternity leave for a period not exceeding six months with a guarantee of reemployment after the aforementioned period on the same terms and conditions of employment as at the date on which the maternity leave was granted, subject to the following conditions:
9.12.1.1 The employee on confinement shall before or on the expiry date of the six -month period notify her employer whether or not she will recommence employment.
9.12.1.2 Proof of the confinement shall be submitted to the employer on the employee's return to work in the form of a birth certificate or death certificate, in the case of a still birth, or medical certificate in the case of a miscarriage.
9.12.1.3 The employer may extend the six -month guarantee period upon receipt of a valid medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner advising the employee not to return to work for medical reasons.
9.12.1.4 The employer shall be permitted to employ a temporary employee in the same category as the employee who has been granted maternity leave on a temporary contract agreement for the period of absence of the employee who has been granted maternity leave.
9.12.1.5 During the period referred to above, all the provisions of the agreements administered by the Council shall apply to the temporary employee.
9.12.1.6 During the contract period the employer may, subject to the Code of Good Practice contained in Schedule 8 of the Act, or for any other reason recognised in law, terminate the contract of temporary employment prior to the contract's expiry date.
9.12.1.7 Any female employee going on confinement shall notify her employer 16 weeks prior to the date of such confinement.

 

9.13 Family responsibility leave
9.13.1 An employee who has been employed with an employer for longer than 4 months shall be entitled to 3 days' paid leave per annum at full pay, on submission of the necessary proof, when the employee's child is sick. Upon the death of the employee's spouse, life partner, parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling, the employee shall be entitled to a further 2 days paid leave per annum at full pay, on submission of the necessary proof.
9.13.2 An employee's unused entitlement to leave in terms of this clause lapses annually and may not be accrued.

 

9.14 Parental leave
9.14.1 An employee, who is a parent of a child, is entitled to at least 10 (ten) consecutive days parental leave:
9.14.1.1 An employee may commence parental leave on—
9.14.1.1.1 the day that the employee's child is born;
9.14.1.1.2 the date the adoption order is granted; or
9.14.1.1.3 on the date that a child is placed in the care of a prospective adoptive parent by a competent court, pending the finalisation of an adoption order in respect of that child, whichever date occurs first.
9.14.2 An employee must notify an employer in writing, unless the employee is unable to do so, of the date on which the employee intends to—
9.14.2.1 commence parental leave; and
9.14.2.2 return to work after parental leave.
9.14.3 Notification in terms of 9.14.2 above shall be given at least one month before—
9.14.3.1 employee's child is expected to be born; or
9.14.3.2 date referred to in subsection 9.14.1.1.2 or 9.14.1.1.3 ; or
9.14.3.3 if it is not reasonably practicable to do so, as soon as is reasonably practicable.

 

9.15 Adoption Leave
9.15.1 An employee, who is an adoptive parent of a child who is below the age of two, is entitled to—
9.15.1.1 adoption leave of at least 10 (ten) weeks consecutively; or
9.15.1.2 the parental leave referred to above.
9.15.2 An employee may commence adoption leave on—
9.15.2.1 the date the adoption order is granted; or
9.15.2.2 on the date that a child is placed in the care of a prospective adoptive parent by a competent court, pending the finalisation of an adoption order in respect of that child, whichever date occurs first.
9.15.3 An employee must notify an employer in writing, unless the employee is unable to do so, of the date on which the employee intends to—
9.15.3.1 commence adoption leave; and
9.15.3.2 return to work after adoption leave.
9.15.4 Notification in terms of adoption leave above must be given at least one month before—
9.15.4.1 the date the adoption order is granted;
9.15.4.2 on the date that a child is placed in the care of a prospective adoptive parent by a competent court, pending the finalisation of an adoption order in respect of that child, whichever date occurs first; or
9.15.4.3 if it is not reasonably practicable to do so, as soon as is reasonably practicable.
9.15.5 If an adoption order is made in respect of two adoptive parents, one of the adoptive parents may apply for adoption leave and the other adoptive parent may apply for the parental leave referred to above: Provided that the selection of choice must be exercised at the option of the two adoptive parents.
9.15.6 If a competent court orders that a child is placed in the care of two prospective adoptive parents, pending the finalisation of an adoption order in respect of that child, one of the prospective adoptive parents may apply for adoption leave and the other prospective adoptive parent may apply for the parental leave: Provided that the selection of choice must be exercised at the option of the two prospective adoptive parents.

 

9.16 Commissioning parental leave
9.16.1 An employee, who is a commissioning parent in a surrogate motherhood agreement is entitled to—
9.16.1.1 commissioning parental leave of at least 10 (ten) weeks consecutively; or
9.16.1.2 the parental leave referred to above.
9.16.2 An employee may commence commissioning parental leave on the date a child is born as a result of a surrogate motherhood agreement.
9.16.3 An employee must notify an employer in writing, unless the employee is unable to do so, of the date on which the employee intends to—
9.16.3.1 commence commissioning parental leave; and
9.16.3.2 return to work after commissioning parental leave.
9.16.4 Notification of the above must be given at least one month before—
9.16.4.1 a child is expected to be born as a result of a surrogate motherhood agreement; or
9.16.4.2 if it is not reasonably practicable to do so, as soon as is reasonably practicable.
9.16.5 If a surrogate motherhood agreement has two commissioning parents, one of the commissioning parents may apply for commissioning parental leave and the other commissioning parent may apply for the parental leave above: Provided that the selection of choice must be exercised at the option of the two commissioning parents.

 

9.17 Study leave

Study leave may be granted by employers only to permanent, full-time employees subject to the following conditions:

9.17.1 Approval for study leave shall be granted at the employer's discretion, which approval shall not be withheld unreasonably.
9.17.2 Study leave, if granted by the employer, shall be for a maximum of two subjects per annum.
9.17.3 Study leave, if granted by the employer, shall be limited to two days of paid study leave per subject, namely the last working day prior to the date of the exam and on the day of the exam.
9.17.4 The result of each exam shall be presented by the employee to the employer as soon as it becomes available.
9.17.5 If an employee fails a subject, the leave granted to the employee for that subject shall be refunded by the employee to the employer at a rate of one day's pay per failed subject.

 

9.18 Fixed term contract of employment

Any employer who intends to employ an employee for a fixed term shall enter into a written fixed term contract of employment with such an employee.

 

9.19 Indefinite-period contract of employment

Any employer who intends to employ an employee for an indefinite period of employment shall enter into a written indefinite -period contract of employment with such an employee.

 

9.20 Certificate of service

Every employer shall issue an employee with a certificate of service on termination of the employee's contract of employment. Such certificate shall comply with the provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 (Act 75 of 1997) (as amended).