The date of the annual shutdown is determined by the company’s management and should be as similar as possible to the previous year’s annual shutdown dates.
The annual shutdown must in total, amount to three consecutive weeks’ paid leave taken over an unbroken period and include four weekends. In addition, the three weeks’ leave must be extended with full pay for each public holiday which falls during the annual shutdown period and which would otherwise have been an ordinary working day.
This year, depending on the start of the annual shutdown, the following public holidays fall into this category, where the normal work week is Monday to Friday:
- 16 December (Friday) – Day of Reconciliation;
- 26 December (Monday) – Day of Goodwill;
- 1 January (Sunday and moves to Monday 2 January) – New Year’s Day;
There is pressure from some unions asking the President to also declare 27 December to be a public holiday, but at the time of writing this explanatory brief, this has not occurred.
Calculation Of Leave Pay (Clause 12) And Leave Enhancement Pay (Clause 14)
All employees are entitled to their full leave pay and leave enhancement pay (bonus) on completion of 234 shifts worked on a five-day week basis or 283 shifts on a six-day week basis, excluding overtime.
Calculating Shifts For Purposes Of Leave Pay And Leave Enhancement Pay
A maximum of 234 shifts (5-day week) or 283 shifts (6-day week) may be worked during a single year and are calculated as follows, however this year:
| 5 Day Week | 6 Day Week | |
| Number of days in a year | 365 | 365 |
| Minus Saturdays and Sundays[1] | 105 | 53 |
| Three Weeks Annual Leave (working days) | 15 | 18 |
| Public holidays | 9[2] | 11 |
| Total number of shifts | 236 | 283 |
Employees who have not worked all available shifts during the year are entitled to pro-rata leave pay and a pro-rata leave enhancement pay:
An employee who worked all available shifts from the first day after the previous year’s annual shutdown up to and including the last shift preceding the current shutdown is entitled to full leave pay and leave enhancement pay (bonus).
An employee qualifies for an additional week’s paid leave from his fourth and subsequent consecutive periods of annual leave and, by mutual arrangement between the employer and employee, the annual shutdown may be extended by an extra week or the employee may be paid out the monetary value of this extra week’s leave. Alternatively, and again by mutual agreement, the extra week’s leave may be accumulated until the employee qualifies for three such weeks’ paid leave, after which the leave must be taken or paid out.
In cases where employees are required to undertake essential work during the shutdown, the relevant MEIBC Regional Office must be advised of the names of these employees, and the reasons thereof, at least one month in advance. Such employees must be given their paid leave within four months of the date of the shutdown.
Calculating Leave Pay And Leave Enhancement Pay (Bonus)
Full (or pro-rata) leave pay and leave enhancement pay are calculated as follows:
Workshops
SEIFSA is conducting Main Agreement Workshops during the month of November and December, please contact Michael Lavender at michaell@seifsa.co.za or sales@seifsa.co.za to make a booking. The training will be conducted online.
Please note that In-house training (face 2 face or online) and consultation are available on this topic plus many others.
Queries
Should you have any queries please contact SEIFSA Industrial Relations Services at (011) 298-9400.
[1] This year there were 53 Sundays in the year.
[2] This year there were two public holidays falling on a Saturday (1 January and 24 September).
