Question: May an employer increase or decrease agreed working hours of its employees?
Answer: Agreed working hours may only be increased or decreased by agreement between the parties.
Brief explanation: An employer may not unilaterally change agreed terms or conditions of employment. Increasing or decreasing the agreed total number of hours that an employee is required to work, is a change to conditions of employment and has to be negotiated and agreed. To illustrate by means of an example: You have a person who works for you and you have agreed that s/he only needs to work half day (e.g. 4 hours), four days a week. One cannot later insist that she works a full 45 hours per week for the same pay, simply because the law allows 45 ordinary hours of work per week. One would have to negotiate the change with her, during which availability, increase in pay, etc. are discussed. It would be a different matter, however, if the contract of employment makes provision variation of working hours by the employer.
The fact that the parties have to agree to change conditions of employment does not mean that an employer’s hands are tied if employees refuse to agree to a change. Where it is operationally justified (e.g. shortage of work), the employer can follow the retrenchment process if employees refuse to agree to a reduction of their working hours.
Changing certain work practices (rather than conditions of employment) such as starting times and meal intervals, etc., is another matter – these may be changed after reasonable consultation (agreement is not required).
Note: These snippets of information are based on frequently asked questions and will be circulated to subscribers on a regular basis. Labourwise subscribers are invited to submit questions on matters that they believe would be of general interest to employers.
Disclaimer: The material above is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Neither the author nor the publisher accepts responsibility for any loss or damage that may arise from reliance on information contained in this article.
10 Comments
Reply to Nchaka: If the contract makes allwance for 40 hours (i.e. you may be required to work up to 40 hours), then the employer may reduce your hours. However, if it states that you “must” work for 40 hours, you may possibly have claim for wages for 40 hours even if your employer requires you to work less. One would have to look carefully at the wording and intention of the contract, though.
It is posible that company schedule me less than 40hours while the contract says i must work 40hours.
Dennis, this appears to be a practice rather than part of the agreed terms and conditions of employment. In our view the employer would be entitled to require employees to work a full day prior to Christmas and New Year, as long as the employer consults with employees a reasonable period beforehand and does not leave it until the last moment.
May an employer change the rule on working time over christmas and New Year. For more than 10 years, the company closes at around 12h00 on the day before christmas and NEw YEar. Some of the retail departments cannot make use of this and must work till 17h00 on the days. Can an employer say from the end of this year everybody will work till 17h00 on the two days?
The simplest way to arrive at a figure would be to first calculate your hourly rate: Divide your monthly salary by four and one third, divided by the number of normal working days per week (presumably 5 days), divided by the number of hours normally worked per day. Once you have the hourly rate you can calculate new daily rate, followed by the weekly rate and monthly salary by reversing the calculation.
Hi, my hours changed from full day to half day, how do we calculate my pay per month now? I have been working for 6 years full day at the company. Thank you. Adele
Existing terms and conditions of employment (including working hours) may only be changed by agreement. If the contract of employment is flexible, e.g. that the employee may be required to work in accordance with a weekly shift schedule, then the employer may change the hours within the limitations set by the Sectoral Determination without the agreement of the employees. Prior consultation is always advisable although it may not necessarily be a legal requirement.
May the Employer in the hospitality sector change the shifts without consulting the Employee
The Employer can change the job title, provided the employee’s status or remuneration is not negatively affected. Whether or not the employee may be moved to another department without his/her consent depends on what work the employee would be required to do in the other department (Is it a significant departure from the current job?) and how flexible the job description is (Does the contract of employment make provision that the job description may change?)
May an employer unilaterally change the position and title of an employee , and transfer him/her to another department without his/her consent?