Career Advice

PART IV – GENERAL CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Sub-Part I – Annual leave with pay

Leave entitlement
In any undertaking every worker is entitled to not less than fifteen working days leave with full pay in any calendar year of continuous service.

The expression “full pay” means the worker’s normal remuneration, without overtime payment, including the cash equivalent of any remuneration in kind.

Continuous service
Continuity of service shall not be regarded as interrupted by mere change of ownership or management of the undertaking.

Where the work is not regularly maintained throughout the year, the requirement of continuous service shall be deemed to have been met if the worker has worked for not less than two hundred days in the particular year.

Interruption of work by public holidays, sickness of worker
Public holidays and absence from duty due to sickness certified by a medical practitioner, and pregnancy and confinement, shall not affect the annual leave entitlement of a worker.

Interruption of work by voluntary communal work, civic duties and special leave
A period during which a worker is absent from his or her normal duties with the permission of the employer on account of the worker’s participation in voluntary communal work, the discharge of civic duties or the granting of special leave with or without pay, shall not be counted as part of the worker’s annual leave.

Sick leave not part of annual leave
A period of absence from work allowed owing to sickness, which is certified by a medical practitioner, and which occurs after the commencement of and during annual leave shall not be computed as part of the leave.

Leave to be uninterrupted
Every worker is entitled to enjoy an unbroken period of leave but an employer, in cases of urgent necessity, may in accordance with this section, require a worker to interrupt his or her leave and return to work.

Where a worker is required by the employer to interrupt his or her leave in the circumstances specified in subsection (1) the worker shall not forfeit the right to the remainder of the leave but shall take the leave anytime thereafter.

Where a worker takes his or her annual leave at the end of a calendar year, the leave may continue except as provided in subsection (1) without interruption, into the following year.

Employer to bear cost of leave interrupted
Any employer who requires a worker to interrupt his or her annual leave in the circumstance stated in section 25, shall make up to the worker any reasonable expense incurred on account of the interruption, and also resumption of the leave by the worker.

Record of employment, leave
A worker shall, as much as may be possible, be given notice of the date of commencement of his or her annual leave, at least, thirty days before the worker takes the leave.

Every employer is required to keep a record showing the following particulars,
the date of employment of each worker employed by the employer and the duration of the annual leave to which the worker is entitled; the dates on which the annual leave is taken by each worker; and (c) the remuneration received by each worker in respect of the annual leave.

Worker may take leave in two equal parts
Without prejudice to the provisions of this Sub-Part, a worker may be permitted to take his or her annual leave in two approximate equal parts.

Leave entitlement to be restored to suspended worker on reinstatement
Where a worker, suspend from the service of his or her employer prior to disciplinary or criminal proceedings being taken against him or her is reinstated, the worker shall be entitled to take the leave he or she would have had if he or she had not been suspended.

Termination of employment not to affect leave entitlement earned
Where the employment of a worker is terminated, the worker is entitled to annual leave in proportion to the period of service in the calendar year.

The worker shall not be deprived of any other grants or awards to which the worker is entitled including payment in lieu of notice of termination.

Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to cases where the employer has the right to dismiss a worker without notice.

Agreement to forgo leave to be void
Any agreement to relinquish the entitlement to annual leave or to forgo such leave is void.

Sub-Part not applicable to family concerns
This Sub-Part does not apply to a person employed in an undertaking in which only members of the family of the employer are employed.

Sub-Part II – Hours of work
Maximum hours of work
The hours of work of a worker shall be a maximum of eight hours a day or forty hours a week except in cases expressly provided for in this Act.

Different hours of work
The rules of any undertaking or its branch may prescribe hours of work different from eight hours a day on one or more days in the week, subject to the following,

a.Where shorter hours of work are fixed, the hours of work on the other days of the week may be proportionately longer than eight hours but shall not exceed nine hours a day or a total of forty hours a week;

where longer hours of work are fixed the average number of hours of work reckoned over a period of four weeks or less shall not exceed eight hours a day or forty hours a week; or
In the case of an undertaking the work of which is of a seasonal nature, where longer hours of work are fixed, the average number of hours of work over a period of one year shall not exceed eight hours a day except that the hours of work which may be fixed under this paragraph shall not exceed ten hours a day.

Paid overtime
Subject to subsections (2) and (3), where a worker in an undertaking works after the hours of work fixed by the rules of that undertaking, the additional hours done shall be regarded as overtime work.

A worker in any such undertaking may not be required to do overtime work unless that undertaking has fixed rates of pay for overtime work.

A worker shall not be compelled to do overtime work except for undertakings or enterprises
the very nature of which requires overtime in order to be viable; or

which are subject to emergencies that require that workers engage in overtime work in order to prevent or avoid threat to life and property.

Shifts
Workers may be employed in shits, but the average number of hours reckoned over a period of four weeks or less shall not exceed eight hours a day or forty hours a week if there is an established time-table for the shifts.

Manual labourers
The Minister may prescribe shorter hours of work for workers in jobs declared to be manual labour and in jobs likely to be injurious to health.

Work for which shorter hours are prescribed under section (1) shall be deemed to be equivalent to work done on the basis of eight hours a day for the purpose of all rights which may flow from the employment.

Unpaid overtime
Notwithstanding section 35, a worker may be required to work beyond the fixed hours of work without additional pay in certain exceptional circumstances including an accident threatening human lives or the very existence of the undertaking.

Commencement and closing of work
The time of commencement and closing of a worker’s hours of work in any undertaking shall be fixed by the rules of the undertaking concerned subject to the following:

• in the case of operations underground, work commences when the worker enters the cage or lift to go down and ends when the worker leaves it at the surface; and
• in the case of operations underground, where the work place is reached by going down a gallery, the hours of work is reckoned from the time when the worker enters the gallery to the time when he or she leaves it at the surface.

Sub-Part III – Rest periods
Undertakings to which this Sub-Part applies iIn any undertaking

•  where the normal hours of work are continuous,   a worker is entitled to at least thirty minutes break in the course of the work, but the break forms part of the normal hours of work; and
• where the normal hours of work are, in two parts, the break should not be of less than one hour duration and does not form part of the normal hours of work.

Daily rest period
 Without prejudice to section 40, a worker shall be granted a daily continuous rest of at least twelve hours duration between two consecutive working days.

The daily rest of the worker in an undertaking operating on a seasonal basis may be of less than ten hours but of not more than twelve hours’ duration over a period of at least sixty consecutive days in the calendar year.

Weekly rest period
A worker shall, in addition to the rest periods provided in sections 40 and 41, be given a rest period of forty-eight consecutive hours, in every seven days of normal working hours, and the rest period may, for preference, start from Saturday and end on the Sunday following and shall wherever possible, be granted to all of the workers of the undertaking.

Rest periods not to include public holidays
The rest periods specified in this Sub-Part do not include public holidays.

Exceptions
This Sub-Part and sections 33 and 34 do not apply to task workers or domestic workers in private homes.