| (a) |
An employer will give his employees annual leave of not less than fifteen (15) working days. |
| (b) |
An employer may, in line with operational requirements, and in consultation with the affected employees and their trade union representative/s, determine the scheduling of annual leave, provided that the granting of annual leave in terms hereof will include at least the five (5) working days occurring immediately prior to 1 January. |
| (c) |
Employees who, on 1 July 1998, have had fifteen (15) or twenty (20) years’ continuous service with the same employer, will be entitled to an additional one (1) or two (2) days’ leave respectively in addition to the fifteen (15) days prescribed annual leave. |
| (2) |
A notice in writing giving the provisional leave date, will be placed in the workplace at least thirty (30) days in advance of such date. A further notice will be placed in the workplace, advising of the closing and re-starting dates fourteen (14) days in advance of the leave dates. |
Payment for annual leave
| (3) |
An employee will be paid holiday pay in terms of subclauses (4) or (5), before the last working day before annual leave commences. |
| (4) |
An employee who has completed twelve consecutive months work with an employer will be paid holiday pay equal to his wages for fifteen working days. In addition, an employee who qualifies for the additional leave as provided for in subclause (1)(c), will be paid an additional one or two days wages respectively. The pay for these days will be calculated at one-fifth of the employee’s weekly wage for each day. Employees who proceed on leave in terms of subclause (1)(b) will be paid that pro-rata portion of the full leave allowance, or negotiate other arrangements in terms of subclause (7). |
| (5) |
An employee who has not worked for 12 consecutive months with an employer when annual leave starts or when the employee’s services are terminated, will be paid one twelfth of the holiday pay for every month worked. |
| (6) |
Any public holidays falling within the annual leave period will be added to the annual leave as further paid leave. Payment for these public holidays will be calculated in terms of the Public Holidays’ Act, 1994. |
| (7) |
An employer and his employees may, through negotiation, determine a different arrangement at plant level in respect of any matter in subclauses (1) to (6). |
| (8) |
An employee whose service is terminated during December and who has worked for 11 consecutive months with the employer, will be paid the full holiday pay, unless his service was terminated for any reason recognised by law as sufficient to justify dismissal. |
Calculation of holiday pay
| (9) |
The wage that an employee was receiving before the holiday started or before the employee’s service was terminated will be used for calculation of holiday pay. The holiday pay for employees on shiftwork will be calculated on the basis of a 42 hour week. |
| (10) |
Employment for 15 consecutive calendar days will be considered a month for the purpose of calculating holiday pay. |
| (11) |
Continuous employment includes any period during which an employee— |
| (b) |
is absent from work on the instructions or at the request of his employer; |
| (c) |
is absent from work due to illness; or |
| (d) |
is absent from work due to maternity leave. |
| (12) |
Where an employee is absent due to illness for more than 3 consecutive days and cannot give the employer a medical certificate, or where the employee is absent for longer than 30 days due to illness, subclause (11)(c) will not apply. |
| (13) |
A female employee who is on maternity leave or goes on maternity leave during the annual leave period, is entitled to holiday pay calculated up until the date when she went on maternity leave. When such an employee returns from maternity leave, she will be entitled to the difference in the holiday pay which accrued during her absence on maternity leave. |
Copyright Act, 1978
