Being a business owner and an employer bears many legal compliance burdens. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (hereinafter “the BCEA”) requires an employer to inform employees of their rights as stipulated in the BCEA and other fundamental legislation.
Let’s look into the specifics of the legal requirement that an employer must inform employees of their rights. What does that practically require?
According to the BCEA, you as an employer are required to display summaries of certain legislation at the workplace in the prescribed form and in the official languages which are spoken in the workplace. This typically takes the form of various wall charts. The two pieces of legislation which require obligatory displaying are the BCEA and the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998.
Should you have in your employ five or more people then you are required to display the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 (hereinafter “the OHSA”). However, the OHSA is an exceptional piece of legislation that requires you to have a copy available on hand at the workplace for your employees even when your total number of employees is less than five.
Dependent on the amount of space available and the relevance thereof, it is strongly suggested that summary charts of the Safety Act, Skills Development Act, Tobacco Products Control Act, and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act also be displayed.
We have established what must be displayed, but where must they be displayed? It is important that these charts are to be conspicuously displayed in an area that is regularly visited by employees. A couple of examples of where that could be in your workplace include: designated bulletin boards in the break room, above time clocks in large office spaces, in an employee lounge, in a lunch room, kitchen, in a passage way that all employees need to pass through.
Currently, the possibility of bypassing this legislation by making the relevant Acts and/or their charts available in a soft copy on an online forum that all employees have access to is not probable. The hope is that this is reviewed and updated in the near future by the Department of Labour, but until then, physical posters and charts are the legal requirement to comply with. Failure to comply with the above mentioned may incur penalties from the Department of Labour.
The charts can be bought from the Government Printers, which are located in Pretoria and Cape Town at marginal rates or can be downloaded from the website of the Department of Labour at www.labour.gov.za.
Should you require our assistance in obtaining the relevant charts please or need further information and assistance, please contact Myers Attorneys on 011 346 2422 or reception@myersattorneys.co.za. You can also visit our website at www.myersattorneys.co.za