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

Notices

National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry

Main Collective Agreement

Part A : Provisions for the Eastern Cape Region

6. Wages

6.1 Minimum Wages

Minimum Wages (4) : Incentivised Wage Rates

 

The “new entry wage rates” provisions as specified in clause 6.1(3), shall be abolished and be replaced with the following incentivised wage rate provisions, applicable to new employees only:

 

4.1 With effect from the coming into operation of this agreement, new employees shall be paid a guaranteed wage of no less than 80% of the normal gazetted wage rate of ALL wage categories applicable to current employees, subject to the following provisions:

 

4.2 New employees are those persons with no previous working experience in the industry and shall include those persons with previous work experience but who have not been employed in the industry for a minimum period of 3 years, unless the applicant employee agrees otherwise with his/her prospective employer.

 

4.3 The guaranteed wage rate as specified in subclause 4.1 above shall be supplemented with an incentivised wage component which shall allow new employees to earn up to 100% or more of the qualified rate, provided that the employee(s) meets the required performance standards as contained in the plant level incentive scheme. This incentive shall be applicable to all new employees engaged under the incentivised wage provisions and employed after 1 September 2012, once a national framework agreement governing the incentive portion has been agreed.

 

4.4 The incentivised wage rate provisions are only applicable to companies which are registered with the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry of South Africa, subject further to subclause 4.5 below.

 

4.5 The provisions are only applicable to those current compliant companies which were in existence and operational as at 1 June 2011.

It is NOT applicable to those companies who:

• are members of an employer association which have not signed the wage agreement and/or
• have not implemented the wage increases envisaged in the agreement.

During the first year of operation of the incentivised wage provisions, the parties will engage to explore mechanisms which will protect current companies and current employees in the event of it being agreed that this provision be extended to new companies which enter the industry for the first time.

 

4.6 All other provisions of the Industry’s Main Agreement shall be applicable to new employees.

 

4.7 The closed shop shall be applicable to all new employees.

 

4.8 Employers shall not embark on retrenchment exercises, where the intent of such retrenchment is to re-employ employees at the rates specified in subclause 4.1 above.

 

4.9 Employers will ensure that short time arrangements are at all times fairly and equitably distributed across a workplace’s employees in all job categories affected by short time arrangements.

 

4.10 Qualified employees shall be employed at the qualified rate, subject to subclause 4.2 above.

 

4.11 Current employees employed in terms of the new entry rate provision envisaged in the 2011/2012 party to party agreement and who were so employed prior to 1 September 2012 shall by exemption be ring-fenced on those rates plus the annual increase of 6.5%, and subject to the companies at which they are employed meeting the compliant employment growth targets as set out in the 2011/2012 wage agreement.

 

4.12 Effective 1st September 2012, all retrenched employees will, within a period of 12 months of having being retrenched, be given preferential employment in the same job category at the same wage rate which was applicable at the date of the employee’s retrenchment or any higher wage rate which may have been gazetted and become applicable to the affected employee’s job category after such date of retrenchment.

 

4.13 The parties shall negotiate a national framework agreement at National Bargaining Council level, to give enabling effects to the plant level incentivised wage component as contemplated in subclause 4.3 above. This shall be finalised within a period of 4 months with effect from 1 October 2012 (excluding the annual shutdown period). Thereafter, companies who qualify for the incentivised wage provisions and who wish to implement it shall have a 2 month period to conclude plant-level incentive arrangements in terms of the provisions of the national framework agreement.

 

4.14 The deadlock breaking mechanism for the national framework agreement is either binding interest arbitration or, at the end of the prescribed period, the entire 80% dispensation falls away, unless other forms of deadlock breaking mechanisms are agreed between the parties.

 

4.15 Should the 80% dispensation fall away in consequence of the provision in subclause 4.14 above, new employees employed on the incentive wage provisions should be paid 100% of the applicable agreed rate.

 

The deadlock breaking mechanism for operationalising the incentive component at plant level shall consist firstly of a facilitation process by a panel of experts jointly appointed by the employer and trade union parties to this agreement and if not resolved, by an advisory award by the panel, unless other forms of deadlock breaking mechanisms are agreed to between the parties.