The International Labour Organisation’s Recommendation No.116 of 1962 provides that normal hours of work should be progressively reduced, when appropriate, with a view to attaining the social standard indicated in the recommendation without any reduction in the wages of the workers at the time hours of work are reduced.
Schedule One of the BCEA provides for procedures to be adopted in order to reduce working hours to the goal of a 40 hour working week.
The Employment Conditions Commission conducted an investigation on the feasibility of reducing working hours in 2014.
The report found that progress into the reduction of working hours for the period covering 2006-2012 was evident in the following sectors:
The functions of the disbanded Employment Conditions Commission have since 2019 been taken over by the National Minimum Wage Commission, so there might be a need to conduct another research in order to check the progress that has been made in the reduction of working hours since the last report and also to establish the feasibility of reducing hours of work and the unintended consequences that may result thereof, particularly for those sectors that are earning the minimum wage e.g. domestic and farm workers sectors.
Furthermore, the item forms part of the proposals currently under discussion at the NEDLAC’s Labour Law Reform Task Team.
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