(1)
| (a) | The ordinary hours of work shall not exceed 40 in any one week for— |
| (i) | employees on day shift and/or night shift; |
| (ii) | employees working on the two and/or three-shift system. |
| (b) | The ordinary hours per shift shall not exceed— |
| (i) | nine hours in any day if the employee works for five days or fewer in a week; or |
| (ii) | eight hours in any day if the employee works on more than five days in a week. |
| Note: | An employee’s ordinary hours of work in terms of subclause (1)(a) may by agreement be extended by up to 15 minutes in a day but not more than 60 minutes in a week to enable an employee whose duties include serving members of the public to continue performing those duties after the completion of ordinary hours of work. |
| (2) | An employer may, to facilitate the keeping of a record of the starting and stopping times and hours of work of his employees, require them to clock in and out of work and may, before paying to any employee any wages and/or remuneration for any period not recorded by the clock, require that employee to show satisfactory proof of having been at work: Provided that an employee shall be paid in terms of this Agreement for all time recorded by the clock which falls within the starting and stopping times of the shift for that day of the week, excluding meal breaks, as notified by the employer to his employees in terms of subclause (6) and for all time which he is required by the employer to work which does not fall within such starting and stopping times. |
| (3) | Overtime shall be voluntary and unless otherwise authorised by the Council, the maximum overtime that may be worked by an employee in any week, including work on Sundays, shall not exceed 10 hours per week: Provided that in establishments that operate a three-shift continuous-process system, which includes up to a maximum of eight hours’ overtime in the normal week, an employee shall be deemed to have agreed to regard such overtime as compulsory overtime if he accepts work at such an establishment. The additional hours worked by the employee, as a consequence of the reduction in working time in the Industry provided for in subclause (7) below, shall be paid at ordinary rates of pay. |
| (4) | In any establishment working a two-shift or three-shift system, no employee may work at night time for more than 12 consecutive working shifts and no employee may work more than one shift in any period of 24 hours except when a change in the rotation of shifts makes this necessary. |
| (5) | An employee shall not be required or permitted to work for more than five hours continuously without an uninterrupted interval of not less than one hour, during which interval the employee shall not be required or permitted to perform any work: Provided that— |
| (a) | an employer and his employees may, by mutual consent of not less than 75 per cent of his employees, agree— |
| (i) | to reduce the period of the interval to not less than 30 minutes, in which case the employer shall grant to each of his employees a rest interval of not less than 10 minutes as nearly as practicable in the middle of each work period before and after the interval, during which periods the employee shall not be required or permitted to perform any work. Such rest intervals shall be deemed to be part of the ordinary hours of work of the employee concerned; or |
| (ii) | to reduce the period of the interval to not less than 30 minutes and to observe a 10-minute rest interval as nearly as practicable to the middle of the morning work period and may further agree to dispense with the afternoon 10 minute rest interval, subject to the proviso that such an arrangement shall mean that the normal finishing time on Fridays shall be advanced by 60 minutes and employees paid for the equivalent time not so worked; |
| (iii) | when, by reason of any overtime worked, an employer is required to give employees a second interval, such interval may be reduced to an interval of not less than 15 minutes; |
| (b) | except as provided for in (a) (i), (ii) and (iii) hereof, periods of work interrupted by intervals of less than 60 minutes shall be deemed to be continuous. |
| (6) | An employer who requires an employee to perform night work on a regular basis after 23:00 and before 06:00 the next day must— |
| (a) | inform the employee in writing or orally if the employee is not able to understand a written communication, in a language that the employee understands— |
| (i) | of any health and safety hazards associated with the work that the employee is required to perform; and |
| (ii) | of the employee’s right to undergo a medical examination in terms of paragraph (b); |
| (b) | at the request of the employee, enable the employee to undergo a medical examination, for the account of the employer, concerning the hazards referred to in (a)(i) above— |
| (i) | before the employee starts, or within a reasonable period of the employee starting, such work; and |
| (ii) | at appropriate intervals while the employee continues to perform such work; and |
| (c) | transfer the employee to suitable day work within a reasonable time if— |
| (i) | the employee suffers from a health condition associated with the performance of night work; |
| (ii) | it is practicable for the employer to do so. |
For the purpose of subclause (6), an employee works on a regular basis if the employee works for a period of longer than one hour after 23:00 and before 06:00 at least five times per months or 50 times per year.
(7) Alternative Working Time Arrangements
| 1.1 | Intention and Purpose: |
| (a) | The purpose and intention of this section of the agreement is to encourage industry employees and employers to discuss and agree working time arrangements which are mutually convenient to themselves and to move away from the fixed working time provisions set out in section 4 hereof. |
| (b) | The nature and extent of these alternative working arrangements depend on what is mutually acceptable at individual company level and may include the following types of alternative arrangements: |
| • | Annualisation (the calculation of an employee’s hours on an annual basis); |
| • | Averaging of the working week; |
| • | Working an unpaid additional hour each week during the year in return for an agreed number of additional days’ paid annual leave; |
| • | The operation of shifts at ordinary rates over weekends; |
| • | Compressed working weeks (employees work up to 12 hours per day without receiving overtime payment in return for a shorter workweek); and |
| • | Any other alternative working time arrangement agreed between workers and management. |
| 1.2 | Implementation Process: |
| (a) | It is the intention of the parties that the decision to introduce flexible working hours and the nature of this arrangement should be a voluntary one on both sides. |
| (b) | The details of the agreed alternative working time arrangement must be recorded in writing and must be signed by the representatives of the affected parties. |
| (c) | Where consensus on the introduction of alternative working time arrangements cannot be reached between management and employees then the following procedure shall be implemented: |
Step 1:
The matter shall be referred to the relevant Regional Council for conciliation. Two assessors, one from the employer side and one from the trade union side may, by mutual agreement, be appointed to assist the conciliator. The assessors shall be selected from outside the workplace.
Step 2:
Where Step 1 is unsuccessful in resolving the dispute, both parties or either party may refer the matter to arbitration in an attempt to settle the dispute. The costs of the conciliation and subsequent advisory arbitration process (where this is undertaken) shall be negotiated at establishment level. Two assessors, one chosen by the trade unions and one by the employers, will be appointed to assist the arbitrator. The assessors shall be selected from outside the workplace.
Step 3:
Should Step 2 not be successful, the arbitrator will then decide the matter in terms of advisory arbitration.
Step 4:
Where the parties choose not to follow the conciliation/advisory arbitration process set out in Steps 2 and 3 above or should either party not be prepared to accept the advisory arbitration decision, they will be free to pursue the matter in terms of legal industrial action. Alternatively, the parties may agree in advance that the arbitration decision will be final and binding, in which case no legal industrial action may be implemented.
| (9) | Every employer shall display in his establishment in a place readily accessible to his employees a notice specifying the starting and finishing times of work for each shift or shifts of the week and the meal hours. |
