Know your rights

By Dr Salomé Teuteberg: Salomé is a Corporate governance Researcher at the Labour Research Service in Cape Town.

Your fundamental rights

Congrats on signing your first contract! Now, before you start working, you need to understand how your contract affects your employment and how your fundamental rights are protected by the South African Constitution, the Labour Relations Act (LRA) and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA).

Time & Overtime

If you earn less than R147 376 per year, the maximum normal working time allowed for you is 9 hours per day (excluding lunch break) in the case of a five-day week. If you earn above R147 376 per year, you must negotiate the normal amount of working hours per day or per week with your employer, and this should be noted in the contract. Know, however, that you are under no obligation to work more than 45 hours per week. When you are above this threshold, your employer cannot force you to work overtime without some form of compensation.

Leave

You are entitled to 21 consecutive days or 15 working days’ annual leave on full pay. Annual leave is accumulative, meaning for every 17 days worked, at least one day of leave is granted, or for every 17 hours worked, one hour of leave is granted.

Sick leave

Sick leave is granted in a cycle of 36 months. Every cycle, you are entitled to an amount of paid sick leave days equal to the number of days you would normally have worked during a period of six weeks. So if you, for example, work five days per week, you are entitled to 30 sick leave days per 36 month cycle. There are, however, some exceptions to the rule – read more at bit.ly/2RI42Pw.

Maternity and paternity leave

A pregnant employee is entitled to four months of unpaid maternity leave. During this time, her employer has to hold her job open for her. For the other parent, new legislation entitles them to 10 days of unpaid parental leave when their child is born.

Right to organise

One of your most important rights as an employee in South Africa is the right to organise. The constitution gives two very important rights to workers in South Africa in relation to this: firstly, that every worker has the right to form and join a trade union and to participate in the union’s activities; and secondly, that every worker has the right to strike.

Discrimination

As set out in the Employment Equity Act, no person may unfairly discriminate, directly or indirectly, against you as employee in any employment policy or practice, on one or more grounds including race, gender, pregnancy, marital status, family responsibility, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, HIV status, conscience, belief, political opinion, culture, language, or birth.

The conditions outlined in the LRA and the BCEA are not inflexible, and employers can always offer better conditions. But they are not allowed to offer worse conditions than set out in these laws.