May 2018 Newsletter

Are you in the Meat Industry & Registered with the Bargaining Council?
If not, contact us today to assist – IT IS COMPULSORY!!!
The terms of the agreement shall be observed in the following Magisterial Districts: Alberton, Boksburg, Brakpan, Germiston, Kempton Park, Johannesburg, Randburg, Roodepoort, Benoni, Krugersdorp, Randfontein, Springs, Westonarea, and the area within a 25km radius of Church Square, Pretoria.
Remuneration Employers must pay to Employees:
No Employer shall pay and no Employee shall accept wages lower than this;
Admin/Office Assistant ………………. R5 713.83
Cashier ………………………………….. R3 416.04
Butchery Assistant ……………………… R3 416.04
Shop Assistant …………………………. R3 280.69
Manager ………………………………… R9 384.23
Master meat cutting tech, grade IA …… R8 680.92
Meat cutting tech, grade IB ……………. R7 559.91
Meat cutting tech, grade II ……………. R4 568.84
Driver …………………………………… R3 891.99
Security Officer ………………………… R3 891.99
Area Manager …………………………. R15 273.15
When must an Employer register with the Council?
Every owner shall ensure that each establishment he/she owns or operates in the Trade is registered with the Council within 14 days of entering or commencing operations in the Trade.
What Funds are payable to the Council:
1. Every employer shall, in respect of each and every establishment he/she owns or conducts, pay a monthly levy of R45.00 per establishment.
2. Every employer shall deduct 1% of the prescribed minimum wage, as prescribed above, from the wage payable to each employee and add to such deduction an equivalent amount.
3. The employer shall ensure that the above amounts are received by the Council by no later than the 7th day of each succeeding month.
What else must the Employer comply with in terms of the Collective Agreement:
 Sick Benefit Fund (Clause 23)
 Retirement Fund (Clause 24)
 Group Funeral Scheme (Clause 25)
Non-Compliance of the Collective Agreement:
The Council has the right to enforce compliance with the Agreement. The Secretary of the Council may request an Agent to investigate and may refer the matter to conciliation. The Agent may issue a compliance order, which calls upon a person to comply within a specified manner within a specified time period.
The Secretary of the Council may elect to refer the matter to arbitration and take such other steps as may be deemed reasonable. If the Arbitrator finds that any party has failed to comply with any of the provisions of the Council’s Collective Agreement, which is binding on that party, the Arbitrator may, in addition to any other appropriate order, impose a fine. Such award can be made an order of the Labour Court.
Not sure whether an employee is negligent or rather under performing???
In the employment environment, there is an obvious overlap between negligence and poor work performance.
We took a look at the difference between the two and summarized it for you as follow:
Negligence:
Negligence is defined as an employee’s failure, without proper cause, to perform his duties with a standard of care that the employee would reasonably be expected to observe in the completion and fulfillment of his/her duties or tasks. The concept of negligence suggests that the employee is aware of what the necessary standard of care is, is capable of performing a task with the necessary standard of care, or has performed the task with the necessary standard of care in the past.
The employee knows what to do, but makes a mistake due to a lapse in concentration, temporary distraction, or failing to pay proper attention to what is being done. Acts of negligence may thus arise when an employee rushes to finish a task, speaks to another employee while finishing a task, or tries to complete several tasks simultaneously.
Poor Work Performance:
Poor work performance refers to a case where the employee applies all possible care in performing a task and invests their full attention and concentration, but still fails to perform to the required standard. This failure to perform is generally due to a lack of skill, training or necessary personal traits, which prevents the employee from performing to the required standard.
In these circumstances the employee would not be able to perform the assigned task irrespective of whether or not he exercised the required standard of care. The employee is in essence incapable of performance to the required standard. The employee’s failure in this instance is due to no fault of his own and cannot be treated as misconduct. The employer would thus have to follow an incapacity procedure in order to establish the way forward.
The Difference:
The difference between negligence and poor work performance thus stems from whether or not the employee is factually capable of performing a task to the standards specified in the contract.
What procedure needs to be followed:
In the case of negligence, the employer would have to revert to their disciplinary procedures, starting with warnings (depending on the severity of the transgression), and eventually dismissing the employee for misconduct after conducting a fair disciplinary inquiry.
Poor work performance cannot be treated in the same way as misconduct. An employee who is under performing would have to be placed into an incapacity inquiry due to poor work performance. The employee must be given proper notice of his/her poor work performance and must be given an opportunity to better his/her performance and must be assisted by the employer during this time.
If an employee is capable of performing his/her duties according to the required standard, but fails to do so without a valid reason, this would amount to misconduct on the part of the employee and may be remedied through disciplinary action.
Employers are reminded that each matter has its own unique merits and thus each matter will be treated differently depending on the facts.
How can Invictus Group help you?
Contact us on 0861 737 263 and one of our specialized staff members will advise you accordingly. We can furthermore assist by drafting the correct charges for you and send out a professional IR Specialist to chair your inquiry / poor work performance inquiry.
Probation – DO’s and DON’T’s every Employer should be aware of…
It has become more and more stressful when it comes to employing new employees. You are always faced with the uncertainty of, whether or not, the new employee is the correct person for the job and if said employee will meet the required standards.
An effective tool the employer can implement is placing the new employee on a probation period where the newly appointed employee’s performance can be monitored.
It thus goes without question that probation is only related to performance, and performance-related issues alone.
Probation often gets misused or misunderstood by employers. The first and most probably biggest mistake the employer can make is using probation as a reason to ‘dismiss’ an employee for a misconduct related offence.
An example of this is an employee sleeping on duty, whilst still under probation, and the employer decides to dismiss the employee for the misconduct without adhering to any procedure. Thus, when an employee needs to be reprimanded for misconduct, the said employee must be treated as a permanent employee. Labour law and the employee’s rights will still apply to an employee under probation.
How to implement Probation correctly?
The Labour Relations Act, Schedule 8: Code of Good Practice Subsection 8 (1), provides the answer to this question. In short, this section states that the employer has the right to place an employee on a probationary period. The duration of the period must be determined in advance and should be reasonable. During this period, the employee should be provided with reasonable evaluation, instruction, training, guidance and / or counselling in order for the employee to render satisfactory results.
The section furthermore states that the period may, either be extended or the employee dismissed, after the employer has invited the employee to make representation (give reasons).
Implementing the above mentioned, and understanding the workings of probation, will allow you as an employer to make sure that the correct person is performing the job.
Need more assistance in this regard or need assistance with an employment contract with a proper probationary clause, do not hesitate to contact us on 0861 737 263.