The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) Consolidated main agreement, dispute resolution collective agreement, and plastics industry main collective agreement have been extended to non-parties and are in effect until 2024.
The Registration and administrative expenses agreement has been cancelled.
The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) is a statutory body created under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) to provide for the co-regulation of stable and productive employment relations in the metal and engineering industries.
The Agreement provides legally binding and comprehensive conditions of employment, including minimum wage structures for all employees whose jobs are described in the Agreement. The Main Agreement contains technical schedules, each one applicable to a particular sub-sector of the industry.
Some of the key conditions that are regulated by the agreement are:
- A 40-hour work week.
- An employer is permitted to implement short time work due to a shortage of work or materials or any other justifiable circumstances by serving five clear calendar days’ notice of this intention to the bargaining council, the affected employees, and their trade unions.
- An employee is entitled to 30 working days’ paid sick leave in each three-year sick leave cycle.
- The minimum notice period to be given by an employer or employee upon termination of employment is one week’s notice for employees with less than six months’ service and up to four weeks’ notice for employees with more than one year’s service.
- The Main Agreement provides detailed security of employment provisions.
- All qualifying employees are entitled to a leave bonus equivalent to 8.33 percent of their actual annual earnings.
- Employers are entitled to apply to the bargaining council for exemption from any provision of the Main Agreement.
The existence of the Agreement plays a large part in ensuring stability and industrial peace in the industry.
The terms of this Agreement shall be observed—
(a) in the Iron, Steel, Engineering and Metallurgical Industry throughout the Republic of South Africa.
(b) in the Provinces of the Transvaal and Natal by the section of the industry concerned with the installation, repair and servicing of radios, refrigerators, and domestic electrical appliances.
(c) in the Magisterial Districts of Durban, East London, Johannesburg, Pietersburg, Pinetown, and The Cape by the section of the industry concerned with radio manufacture.
(d) by all employers who are members of the employers’ organisations and by all employees who are members of the trade unions.
(e) By scheduled employees as defined in clause 3 of this Agreement. – ‘Scheduled employee’ means an employee whose minimum rate of pay is scheduled in this Agreement, or an employee employed under exemption from this Agreement or under conditions determined by the Council, or an apprentice.
This Agreement shall come into operation on 17 October 2022 and operate until 30 June 2024.
For more information and assistance with your current or upcoming B-BBEE verification, kindly contact your regional LabourNet office.
0861 LABNET (0861 522638).
Not yet a LabourNet client, but would like to know more about our service and products?
Email us: support@www.labournet.com
