National minimum wage

We are still waiting for our President to sign into law the approved NMW Bill and therefore the implementation date is at this stage still uncertain.

Producers are advised to study the Bill (NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE BILL) and be forewarned that any attempts to circumvent the national minimum wage may constitute an unfair labour practice.
Please also note the other changes to labour legislation that will also become effective then.
These are :

1. The Labour Relations Amendment Bill
This bill makes various changes to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995. These changes mainly concern collective bargaining. The bill provides for the following:
• Extension of bargaining council agreements to non-parties by the Minister of Labour;
• Extension of funding agreements of bargaining councils;
• Picketing through collective agreement or through prescribed picketing rules;
• Extension of the meaning of ballot for a strike or lock-out to include a secret vote;
• Creation of an advisory arbitration panel.
The advisory arbitration panel has been established to resolve strikes (or lockouts) that are obstinate or violent.
The panel may also intervene if there is potential for the strike (or lockout) to cause a local or national crisis.

2. The Labour Laws Amendment Act
This bill aims to amend the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997. The bill creates parental leave, adoption leave and commissioning parental leave to employees as follows:
An employee, who is a parent of a child, is entitled to ten consecutive days of parental leave;
An employee, who is an adoptive parent of a child below the age of two, is entitled to:
Adoption leave of at least ten consecutive weeks; or
At least ten consecutive days of parental leave.
An employee, who is a commissioning parent in a surrogacy agreement, is entitled to:
Commissioning parental leave of ten consecutive weeks; or
At least ten consecutive days of parental leave.

Maternity leave payments will also increase from 54% to 66% of salaries within the thresholds.