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The United National Transport Union (UNTU) wrote to Minister Thulas Nxesi, the new Minister of Employment and Labour, to request him to review the threshold of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) that has been stagnant for the past five years.

UNTU requested his predecessor, Minister Mildred Oliphant, several times to review the threshold in vain despite her personal undertaking on the 27 January 2019 to the Union to consider this matter urgently.

The threshold has not been increased since 1 July 2014.

Steve Harris, General Secretary of UNTU, says the Union has been pushing for the BCEA threshold to be increased as all employees earning below it have the full protection of every section of the Act.
 
The BCEA governs respectively:
• Limiting ordinary hours of work to 45 hours per week;
• Payment for any overtime worked in excess of 45 hours;
• Limitations on a compressed working week;
• Provisions which allow for the averaging of a work week;
• Mandatory provision of a meal interval of not less than 30 minutes for employees whom work for longer than 5 hours;
• Provisions which allow for certain mandatory minimum daily and weekly rest periods;
• An employee is entitled to increased pay for work on Sundays;
• Payment of a mandatory allowance for employees who engage in night work;
• Increased pay for employees who work on public holidays.
 
Harris says employees who earn in excess of the threshold are not entitled to the minimum protections contained in the Act.
 
UNTU is of the view that the increase is long overdue. The previous threshold was R193 805.00 before Oliphant increased it on 1 July 2014.
 
Issued by UNTU