CRS News Flash 21 February 2023 – SOUTH AFRICA – BCEA Earnings Threshold

The Minister of Employment and Labour has, in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) earnings threshold, revised the rate from R224 080.48 to R241 110.59 pa, effective from 1 March 2023. Government Gazette No. 48092, notice No. 3067 of 20 February 2023 refers.

Earnings means the regular annual remuneration of an employee before deductions in respect of tax, medical aid, retirement fund and similar payments, but excludes similar benefit contributions made by the employer. Subsistence allowances, transport allowances, achievement awards and overtime payments are also not included.

Employees who earn below the earnings threshold are entitled to the working hour protections contained in the BCEA. This means, for example, that such employees are entitled to overtime pay or time off in respect of overtime worked.

Chapter 2 of the Act deals with, among others, the regulation of working time, limit on the duration of an employee’s working week, and prescribing a rate at which an employee should be paid to work outside normal working hours.

Employees who earn in excess of the threshold are excluded from certain provisions of the BCEA, such as:

·        Section 9 (Ordinary hours of work)

·        Section 10 (Overtime)

·        Section 11 (Compressed working week)

·        Section 12 (Averaging of hours of work)

·        Section 14 (Meal intervals)

·        Section 15 (Daily and weekly rest period)

·        Section 16 (Pay for work on Sundays)

·        Section 17(2) (Night work)

·        Section 18(3) (Public holidays not ordinarily worked)