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News & Stories of Interest |
December 2008
ACCEPTING AN OFFER
A valid employment contract is concluded the moment parties agree on the essential terms of the contract, which are the employee’s agreement to work for the employer in exchange for specified or determinable remuneration.
The employer makes an offer, which the employee accepts. But is it as simple as that? Are there any specific requirements for accepting an offer? There are four such requirements.
Firstly, an acceptance of an offer must be clear, unequivocal and unambiguous. In other words, the intention to accept the offer should be clear and not require any interpretation. It should also not introduce any conditions. For example, the offeree may not say “I accept the offer if you increase my remuneration”. In that case the acceptance would be invalid.
Secondly, the acceptance must correspond with the offer. If an employer offers “a job as an accountant at a salary of Rx”, the offeree may not accept as follows: “I accept the job of a senior accountant at a salary of Rx plus benefits”. Modifying the offer invalidates it and the subsequent acceptance.
Thirdly, the offeree must accept the offer in the mode or form prescribed by the offeror. So if an employer indicates that an offer “must be accepted in writing by means of signature on a specified space in the offer letter” then that is exactly what should happen. Any other way of accepting will be invalid. But if the employer does not specify the mode of acceptance, any form of acceptance will be valid. In Jafta v Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife [2008] JOL 22096 (LC) the court held that an acceptance of an offer by short message service (SMS) was valid.
Fourthly, the acceptance must be communicated to the offeror. The offeror needs to know that its offer has been accepted. The communication should also be made within any prescribed time for acceptance. If the communication does not reach the offeror within the stipulated time, the offer will lapse and the purported acceptance will be invalid.
Where all four requirements are present, an acceptance will be valid and a contract will come into effect. In the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife case the court found that the SMS sent by Jafta satisfied all the requirements for a valid acceptance and ruled that a contract between the parties was therefore concluded. Once a contract is concluded, there are legal consequences that flow from it. If the employer terminates the contract without following the correct procedures and without having a valid reason, the employee may sue for compensation or damages.
Lesson:
When making an offer, always specify how and when it should be accepted.
Information provided by Kaizer Moyane, Chief Consultant: Labour Relations, Sanlam
June 2008
Legislation Alert - May 2008
The Department of Labour have released the amended minimum wage tables for Hospitality.
As you are no doubt aware, the minimum wages prescribed under Sectoral Determination 14, are to be increased on the 1st July 2008.
The Determination stipulates that the increase on the minimum wage must be CPIX plus 2%.
The Department of Labour has now released the new schedule for minimum wages as of the 1st of July 2008. In terms of this schedule,
there will be a 12.1% increase on the minimum wages. This is based on a CPIX of 10.1% plus 2%. The table below illustrates the effect in monetary terms:
Hospitality Sectoral Determination No 14
Minimum Wage Schedule for the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009
Hospitality Sector |
Table 1: Minimum wages for employers with 10 or less employees |
Minimum rate for the period |
Minimum rate for the period |
Minimum rate for the period |
1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008 |
1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 |
1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 |
R.p.m. |
R.p.w. |
R.p.h. |
R.p.m. |
R.p.w. |
R.p.h. |
R.p.m. |
R.p.w. |
R.p.h. |
R 1,480.00 |
R341.60 |
R 7.59 |
R 1,659.08 |
R 382.93 |
R 8.51 |
Previous Minimum wage +CPIX + 2% |
The CPIX rate used to calculate the minimum wage increase applicable from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 is the rate that was available 6 weeks prior to the increase becoming effective, which is the May 2008 CPIX rate of 10.1% plus 2%. The minimum wage increase will therefore increase by 12.1%. |
Hospitality Sector |
Table 2: Minimum wages for employers more than 10 employees |
Minimum rate for the period |
Minimum rate for the period |
Minimum rate for the period |
1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008 |
1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 |
1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 |
R.p.m. |
R.p.w. |
R.p.h. |
R.p.m. |
R.p.w. |
R.p.h. |
R.p.m. |
R.p.w. |
R.p.h. |
R 1,650.00 |
R 380.80 |
R 8.46 |
R 1,849.65 |
R 426.88 |
R 9.48 |
Previous Minimum wage +CPIX + 2% |
The CPIX rate used to calculate the minimum wage increase applicable from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 is the rate that was available 6 weeks prior to the increase becoming effective, which is the May 2008 CPIX rate of 10.1% plus 2%. The minimum wage increase will therefore increase by 12.1%. |
PLEASE NOTE:
1. The 12.1 % increase applies ONLY to the minimum wage currently being paid in terms of the Sectoral Determination, i.e. R1650 per month or R8.46 per hour. Some Trade Unions are implying that the 12.1 % increase is applicable across the board. This is not so.
2. This is not applicable to Restaurant and Catering employers falling under a Bargaining Council Agreement CATRA in Johannesburg area and CATRA in Pretoria area). You will need to comply with the requirements of the CATRA Agreement that you fall under.
May 2008
HANDLING CANDIDATES IN THIS MARKET
Human Resources are a very vital part of all our businesses and now Potentially Strong Prospective Employees are scarce in every industry in SA. We as an industry need to realise that our Graduates are sought after in various industries, many of them have people, financial and stock management skills required by many types of industries. We need to become more open to bringing in candidates with these trained skills into our environment .There are many tools to measure the potential of candidates to handle the environment .So long as they understand the long hours they are required to work ,we should be more open to looking for these cross over skills..
Candidates have become very aware that they can play the market at this point in time. Clients looking for staff, need to employ people with a thorough approach to finding the right person. (we recommend Prevue Assessments etc,) but there does need to be a stronger sense of urgency. Candidates are playing employers off against one another but are also jumping for the first offer that meets their criteria.
Here are a few pointers for clients:
• Make the candidate and Hotelstaff aware of your recruitment process and how long it will take.
• Keep in touch with them through out the process ( Many of our clients think we are hanging on to candidates for them like they are stock on a shelf awaiting purchase)
• Keep the Hotelstaff thoroughly aware of where you are in the process so we can give constant feed back to candidates.
• MAKE THEM FEEL LIKE YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN THEM JOINING YOUR ORGANISATION.
• Be creative about Salary and Packages offered, Incentivisation with a large carrot at the end is a very good method of enticing people who want the challenge. Naturally this needs to be monitored but it can pay off for the business and the new staff member..
• Be aware of the fast pace of salary increases. In order to retain staff many companies are counter offering and offering better packages for new employees. We are competing with many other industries too……Receptionists from our Industry are highly sort after with starting salaries way above our 5* Industry norm of R5000 ..
• Promise training and follow up on it, Promise career assessment and follow up on it. Write these things into contracts of employment......Many candidates move for promises never kept and are disallusioned. Become an employer of choice in the industry because you are seen to care about your staff.
• Be more open to candidate's potential. Many Candidates are passed over because they haven’t got years of experience , but then are given a chance that empowers them and they prove themselves much more capabe. Again assessments can be of enormous help here.
• Be open to attracting potential future management into the industry. Many, many hotel and catering matriculants are lost to the industry because they have no funds to do tertiary training. At least they showed an early interest in the industry, encourage your local students to visit your establishments to get a taste of the environment. Find out if any of your local schools do the matric .There are over 300 schools with this subject available.
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