Working Hours in South Africa (BCEA): Overtime and Records

South Africa's Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA) has an unusual feature at its centre. Most working-time statutes apply to everyone and then carve out narrow exemptions for senior managers. The BCEA has such exemptions too (s 6(1)), but it also draws a line by salary: earn above a threshold the Minister of Employment and Labour sets by notice in the Government Gazette (updated every year since 2023), and most of the working-time chapter stops applying to you.

That single number decides whether an employee is entitled to overtime pay, meal intervals, rest periods, and Sunday premiums, or to none of them. It moved on 1 May 2026.

#Quick Reference

#How Many Hours Is a Working Day, Week and Month in South Africa?

The short answer: 45 ordinary hours a week. Within that, a working day is 9 hours for employees who work five days a week or fewer, and 8 hours for those who work more than five days (BCEA s 9).

The longest lawful day is 12 hours including overtime (s 10). Overtime needs an agreement and stops at 10 hours a week, so outside a collective agreement (s 10(6) or s 12) the week tops out at 55 hours. A compressed working week (s 11) can stretch the ordinary day to 12 hours without overtime pay, but only by written agreement and within the same 45-hour week.

The BCEA sets daily and weekly limits, not monthly ones. A monthly figure is arithmetic: 45 hours a week over 52 weeks and 12 months comes to about 195 ordinary hours a month, and the 10-hour overtime cap to about 43 overtime hours a month, for a ceiling of about 238.

These limits apply only to employees earning below the earnings threshold (see the next section). After five continuous hours of work, the employee is also entitled to a one-hour meal interval (s 14), which a written agreement can reduce to 30 minutes.

#The Earnings Threshold

Start here, because it determines whether most of the working-time rules apply.

Under section 6(3) the Minister of Employment and Labour sets the earnings threshold. From 1 May 2026 it is R269,600.90 per year, roughly R22,466.74 a month, up from R261,748.45 (in force since 1 April 2025).

Employees earning above the threshold are excluded from:

• section 9 (ordinary hours of work)
• section 10 (overtime)
• section 11 (compressed working week)
• section 12 (averaging of hours)
• section 14 (meal intervals)
• section 15 (daily and weekly rest periods)
• section 16 (pay for work on Sundays)
• section 17(2) (night work allowances)
• section 18(3) (public holidays not ordinarily worked)

"Earnings" means regular annual remuneration before deductions such as tax, pension, and medical aid, but excluding the employer's own contributions, and excluding subsistence and transport allowances, achievement awards, and overtime pay. That last exclusion matters: you cannot lift someone over the threshold by paying them a lot of overtime.

Everything else in the BCEA still applies above the threshold, including annual leave, sick leave, notice, and, importantly, the record-keeping duty in section 31.

#Working Time Below the Threshold

#Ordinary Hours

Forty-five hours a week. Within that, 9 hours a day if the employee works five days a week or fewer, and 8 hours a day if they work more than five days.

#Overtime

Overtime is only lawful by agreement, and it is capped at 10 hours a week. The rate is one and a half times the ordinary wage, or an agreed combination of pay and time off. No day may exceed 12 hours in total including overtime.

Ten hours is a weekly limit, not an average. A collective agreement can raise it, to 15 hours a week for no more than two months in any 12-month period (s 10(6)), or average it under s 12.

#Compressed Weeks and Averaging

Two escape valves exist for employers with uneven demand:

• Compressed working week (s 11): by written agreement, an employee may work up to 12 hours a day without overtime pay, provided they stay within 45 ordinary hours a week, 10 overtime hours a week, and 5 days a week.
• Averaging (s 12): by collective agreement only, hours may be averaged over up to four months, to an average of 45 ordinary and 5 overtime hours a week.

Averaging requires a collective agreement with a trade union, while a compressed week needs only a written agreement with the employee.

#Rest and Meals

• Meal interval (s 14): one continuous hour after five continuous hours of work. It may be reduced to 30 minutes by written agreement, and dispensed with entirely if the employee works fewer than six hours a day.
• Daily rest (s 15): 12 consecutive hours between ending and starting work.
• Weekly rest (s 15): 36 consecutive hours, which must include Sunday unless otherwise agreed.

#Sunday, Night, and Public Holidays

• Sunday (s 16): double the ordinary wage, or 1.5x if the employee ordinarily works Sundays.
• Night work (s 17): work between 18:00 and 06:00 requires agreement, an allowance or reduced hours, and available transport. Section 17(3) adds duties where an employee regularly works after 23:00, including a medical examination at the employee's request.
• Public holidays (s 18): twelve a year under the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994, and a holiday that falls on a Sunday moves to the following Monday (s 2(1) of that Act). Work on a public holiday the employee would ordinarily work is paid at least double (s 18).

#Leave

• Annual leave (s 20): 21 consecutive days per 12-month leave cycle, which for a five-day worker is 15 working days.
• Sick leave (s 22): during each 36-month cycle, an employee is entitled to the number of days they would normally work in six weeks. For a five-day worker that is 30 days across three years, not per year, which surprises employers used to an annual allowance.
• Family responsibility leave (s 27): three days a year for employees who have worked four months and at least four days a week.

#Record-Keeping: Section 31

Every employer must keep a record containing at least:

• the employee's name and occupation
• the time worked by each employee
• the remuneration paid to each employee
• the date of birth of any employee under 18
• any other prescribed information

The record must be kept for three years from the date of the last entry. No one may make a false entry in it (s 31(3)).

Two things follow.

First, section 31 sits outside the threshold exclusions. An employee earning R400,000 is exempt from ordinary hours, overtime, and rest periods, but their employer must still record the time they worked. The exemption removes the entitlements, not the record.

Second, "time worked" means actual time. A roster showing intended shifts is a plan, not a record. In a dispute at the CCMA or the Labour Court, an employer with no contemporaneous record of hours is arguing against the employee's diary with nothing of its own.

#Inspection and Penalties

The Department of Employment and Labour enforces through labor inspectors, who may enter workplaces, question staff, and demand records. The usual sequence is:

1. an inspection and a request for records
2. a compliance order (s 69) where a contravention is found, stating the maximum fine under Schedule Two: R300 to R1,500 per affected employee, or 25% to 200% of the amount owed where pay was short, rising with previous failures
3. an application by the Director-General to the CCMA to make the order an arbitration award if it is ignored (s 73)

Separately, individual disputes about hours and pay run through the CCMA or a bargaining council. The National Minimum Wage Act 2018 sits alongside the BCEA and is enforced the same way.

#Practical Compliance Checklist

1. Identify who sits above and below the threshold, and re-check whenever a new determination takes effect (1 April in 2025, 1 May in 2026).
2. Record time worked for everyone, including above-threshold staff. Section 31 does not follow the exclusions.
3. Get overtime agreements in writing and track the 10-hour weekly cap per employee.
4. Apply Sunday and public holiday rates correctly, which requires knowing what each employee ordinarily works.
5. Keep records for three years and be able to retrieve a single employee's window on request.
6. Document any compressed-week or averaging arrangement, since both need an agreement to be lawful.

#Common Questions

Does the threshold mean high earners have no working-time rights? It means sections 9 to 12, 14 to 16, 17(2) and 18(3) do not apply to them. They keep annual leave, sick leave, family responsibility leave, notice, and the protection of their contract. Hours and overtime terms can still be agreed in their contracts.

Is the threshold gross or net? Gross regular remuneration before deductions, excluding employer contributions, subsistence and transport allowances, achievement awards, and overtime.

Can an employee agree to work more than 10 hours of overtime? No. An agreement with the employee makes overtime lawful up to the cap; it cannot raise the cap. A collective agreement can raise it to 15 hours a week for no more than two months in any 12 months (s 10(6)), and a bargaining council agreement (s 49) or a ministerial determination (s 50) can vary it.

How does sick leave really work? The cycle is 36 months, not 12. The full entitlement is available from the start of the cycle, subject to a limit of one day per 26 days worked during the first six months of employment.

Do these rules apply to remote workers? Yes. The BCEA attaches to the employment relationship rather than the premises, so time tracking for remote employees is subject to the same section 31 record duty as on-site work.

#Summary

• Ordinary hours are 45 a week, with 9 or 8 hours a day depending on the number of working days
• Overtime needs agreement, is capped at 10 hours a week, and is paid at 1.5x, with a 12-hour daily ceiling
• The earnings threshold is R269,600.90 from 1 May 2026, and above it sections 9 to 12, 14 to 16, 17(2) and 18(3) do not apply
• Section 31 record-keeping applies to every employee regardless of earnings, for three years
• Sunday work pays 2x, or 1.5x for those who ordinarily work Sundays
• The Department of Employment and Labour enforces by compliance order; disputes run through the CCMA

#Sources

• Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 on gov.za
• Department of Employment and Labour
• Determination: Earnings Threshold, Government Notice 7384, Government Gazette 54544 of 17 April 2026
• Werksmans: understanding the 1 May 2026 BCEA earnings threshold adjustment
• National Minimum Wage Act 9 of 2018

#Where to Go Next

• UK Working Time Regulations 1998: employer guide for the other common-law system built on an opt-out
• Working hours in Australia under the Fair Work Act for a comparable 7-year record duty and instrument-driven detail
• FLSA overtime in the USA for the closest parallel to an earnings-based exemption