Department of Labour Reviews Basic Employment Conditions Across Wide Range of Sectors

Department of Labour

The department of labour intends reviewing basic conditions of employment and minimum wages in the contract cleaning, wholesale and retail, hospitality and taxi sectors.

Announcements to this effect can be found in notices 59, 61, 62 and 63 of Government Gazette 34980 dated 27 January 2012 and refer to sectoral determinations 1, 9, 14 and 11 respectively.

Interested parties have been invited to submit written representations on the issues concerned within 30 days in respect of the contract cleaning, hospitality and taxi sectors, and within 90 days in respect of the wholesale and retail sector.

Made under Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, the sectoral determinations apply to the following:

•    contract cleaning:
-    every employer in the contract cleaning sector and all employees except managers, administrative personnel and employees working less than 24 hours a month.

•    wholesale and retail:
-    employers and employees “mainly or wholly associated for the purpose of procuring products from any supplier or manufacturer for … sale to any person, whether on a wholesale or retail basis” and including those in merchandising, warehousing and distribution operations.

•    hospitality:
-    employers and employees in commercial businesses supplying accommodation and/or food and beverages, “including commercial enterprises incidental to or arising from these activities”.

•    taxi:
-    taxi drivers, rank marshals, people assisting with the collection of fares and the loading/offloading of passengers, cleaners and administrators.

In terms of the act, during a sectoral determination investigation the department’s director general may question anyone able to provide relevant information or request any employer, employee or other affected person to provide evidence.

Once a sectoral investigation has been concluded and a report submitted to the Employment Conditions Commission, recommendations for a sectoral determination will be prepared which, once approved by the minister, will apply to all employers and employees in the sector other than those covered by another determination or a collective agreement.

Sabinet Cape Town Office