| (1) | Continuous Working Time Arrangements; |
Ordinary working hours will be determined by the enterprise. The Plastic Industry observes continuous operations and working time arrangements should be convenient to accommodate the operational requirements of the enterprise;
| (a) | The nature and extent of these working arrangements depend on what is operationally acceptable at individual company level and may include the following types of arrangements: |
| • | Compressed working weeks (employees working up to 12 hours per day without receiving overtime payment in return for a shorter workweek)1; |
| • | 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; and |
| • | Any other workings time arrangement agreed between workers and management; |
| • | Any combination of the above. |
| (b) | The additional hours worked by the employee, as a consequence of the implementation and/or adoption of the working time arrangements listed above, shall be paid at ordinary rates of pay. Provided that, in establishments that operate a continuous-process system, an employee shall be deemed to have agreed to observe the shift system, if he accepts work at such an establishment. |
| (2) | Enterprises operating five (5) days per week, which includes any form of rotation other than listed in 1(a) above must observe; |
| (a) | Ordinary hours of work at 40 hours 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 in sub-clause 2 shall not exceed— |
| (i) | nine hours in any day if the employee works for five days or fewer in a week; or an employee's ordinary hours of work in terms of sub-clause (1) and 2(a) may be 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. In any establishment working a two-shift or three-shift system, no employee may work at night time for more that 12 consecutive 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. |
| (c) | Subject to sub-clause 1 and Clause 9 (Reduction and Increase of Working Hours) 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 two or three-shift continuous-process system, which includes up to a maximum of eight hours' overtime in a 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. |
| (3) | 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 sub-clauses (2)(a) and 2(b)(i) and for all time which he is required by the employer to work which does not fall within such starting and stopping times. |
| (4) | 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 the trade union, where no trade union is involved with the workforce itself, may by mutual consent of not less than the majority 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; or |
| (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 sub-clause 4(a)(i), (ii) and (iii) hereof, periods of work interrupted by intervals of less than 60 minutes shall be deemed to be continuous and shall be paid at ordinary rates of pay or overtime where applicable. |
| (5) | 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; and |
| (ii) | it is practicable for the employer to do so. |
For the purpose of sub-clause (5), 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.
| (6) | 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. |
_________________________________________
1 See Annexure B page 66
