Shift work and payments

[Mmanga Xala]

Hi everyone,

I'm Mmanga site and contract manager and i have an eluding predicament looming.

We are about to embark on a three shift system and how this three shift system works is that staff works three days on day shift, three days on night shift and then three days off. All shifts are twelve hours each and my question is how are weekends wages or times recorded or governed? Do all times become normal excluding the overtime which occurs after nine hours on a daily basis or do weekend times still get recorded the same being Saturday = 1.5 and Sunday 2?

Many thanks Mmanga.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Your Sat and Sunday times may be regulated by a collective agreement.
A 12 hour day has overtime.
You need to conclude a written agreement with staff wherein they agree to a compressed working week.
You may need to consider an averaging of hours agreement.
Again a collective or sectoral agreement may govern these issues (eg Security)

[Mike C]

Just to make things a bit easier for you, here is the section in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act that sterne.law is referencing

Compressed working week

11.
(1) An agreement in writing may require or permit an employee to work up to twelve hours in a day, inclusive of the meal intervals required in terms of section 14, without receiving overtime pay.
(2) An agreement in terms of subsection (1) may not require or permit an employee to work—
(a) more than 45 ordinary hours of work in any week;
(b) more than ten hours’ overtime in any week; or
(c) on more than five days in any week.