BCEA Section 10, in English
How SA overtime actually works
Section 10 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act is one of the cleaner pieces of SA labour law: simple maths, clear multipliers, well-known limits. Confusion almost always comes from two places — the earnings threshold (who the rules actually apply to) and the difference between Sunday and public-holiday work vs Saturday work.
The multipliers
- 1.5× the ordinary hourly rate for any overtime worked Monday to Saturday. The standard time-and-a-half.
- 2× on Sundays and public holidays when the employee doesn’t ordinarily work them. If you do ordinarily work Sundays (retail, hospitality), Sunday rate drops to 1.5×.
That’s the whole maths. Multiply the ordinary hourly rate by 1.5 or 2 depending on the day, then by the number of overtime hours. The calculator above does it; the article that should accompany every payslip would help employees confirm the maths is right.
The earnings threshold — who’s in, who’s out
Section 10 doesn’t apply to every employee. It applies specifically to employees earning below the BCEA earnings threshold — a figure set by the Minister of Employment and Labour and reviewed annually. Above the threshold, the BCEA chapters on hours of work, overtime, meal intervals, and Sunday work fall away. Overtime becomes purely a matter of what your contract specifies.
In practice:
- Junior and mid-level staff are almost always below the threshold — Section 10 applies, overtime must be paid at the multipliers.
- Senior and managerial staff are often above — overtime is whatever the contract says, which is frequently “no extra pay, expected as part of the role”.
- Genuine independent contractors aren’t employees and aren’t covered by BCEA at all.
The current threshold is on labour.gov.za. It generally moves upward each year.
The 10-hour weekly cap
BCEA Section 10(1)(b) caps overtime at 10 hours per week. That’s the legal maximum. An employer can’t demand more, and you can’t agree to more outside of a Department of Employment and Labour exemption or a binding bargaining-council agreement that sets a different limit.
Some industries (mining, certain hospitality categories) have sectoral determinations or collective agreements that vary the cap upward or downward. Check yours.
Overtime vs Sunday vs public-holiday work
Three related but distinct concepts. Easy to confuse, so the rules:
- Overtime(Section 10) — work performed beyond ordinary hours, on any day that isn’t a Sunday or public holiday. 1.5×.
- Sunday work (Section 16) — 2× if you don’t ordinarily work Sundays; 1.5× if you do. Hours capped under your contract; voluntary unless your contract specifically requires Sunday availability.
- Public holiday work (Section 18) — same 2× / 1.5× logic. Plus: if the holiday falls on a day you’d ordinarily work and you don’t work, you’re still entitled to be paid for it.
Time off instead of cash
Section 10(3) allows a written agreement to compensate overtime with time off rather than money — at 1.5 hours off per overtime hour (or 2 hours off per Sunday hour). Time off must be granted within a defined window — BCEA defaults to one month for the time off, six months for cash that hasn’t been compensated either way.
The default, if there’s no agreement otherwise, is cash payment.
If your employer underpays
Two paths. Internally first: raise it with payroll or HR with the BCEA Section 10 reference, and ask for the adjustment on the next payslip. Most underpayments are honest mistakes that get fixed once flagged.
If internal escalation doesn’t resolve it, the Department of Employment and Labour’s inspectorate can investigate. Lodge a complaint via labour.gov.za or at your nearest Department office. For dismissal-related overtime disputes, the CCMA is the right venue. For complex cases, a labour-law attorney.