The Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997 (the BCEA) states the following:
Section 17: Night work
- In this section, “night work” means work performed after 18:00 and before 06:00 the next day;
- An employer may only require or permit an employee to perform night work if so agreed and if the employee is compensated by paying an allowance, which may be a shift allowance, or by a reduction of working hours.
Employees must therefore be paid an allowance and/or the employee’s hours must be reduced when the employee works at night.
The Act does not give a monetary value to the allowance to be paid, and can the employer and the employee, therefore ,agree on the allowance amount.
Normal practice regarding the allowance that is generally accepted to be fair is a 10% night shift allowance.
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