BARGAINING COUNCIL FOR THE FAST FOOD, RESTAURANT AND CATERING TRADES: SEMI-NATIONAL: NEW MAIN AGREEMENT

BARGAINING COUNCIL

for the

FAST FOOD RESTAURANT AND CATERING TRADES

SEMI-NATIONAL

NEW MAIN AGREEMENT

 

Dear employer

 

The Department of Employment and Labour has extended the Main Collective Agreement of the Bargaining Council for the Fast Food, Restaurant and Catering Trades to non-parties.

 

This means that all employers falling within the scope of this Council are now bound by the terms and conditions as contained in this agreement.

 

Please note that this is a new bargaining council and these employers would have previously been covered by the Sectoral Determination for the hospitality sector.

 

It should be mentioned that the extension of this agreement, at this juncture and under the current economic conditions, fills one with a sense of absolute incredulity. It is simply nonsensical and indefensible to extend an agreement to an industry which is currently one of the last remaining sectors suffering the full brunt of the lockdown regulations. The hospitality industry is already haemorrhaging, many have already closed their doors and many more will simply not be able to remain viable under the current conditions.

 

How is it possible that the parties to this bargaining council thought it a good idea to request the extension of an agreement, under these extraordinary circumstances, which adds an additional cost component of at least 16% (excluding additional on-costs) to the overhead costs of employers?

 

Should it not have been obvious to these labour- and employer parties that the extension of this agreement, at this time, will lead to further business closures and job losses?

 

Is it not the mandate of bargaining councils to look after the interest of the industry they supposedly represent and to support its growth?

 

It simply baffles the mind that unions would support the extension of an agreement that will so obviously lead to massive job losses of the vulnerable employees they claim to protect, or that employers can support an extension that will certainly lead to business closures. Then again, maybe utilising the bargaining council to eliminate competition is the whole point. No doubt, many of the employers who so readily signed this agreement, and agreed to extend it to employers who are not party to it, will be first in line to apply for exemption from their own agreement.

 

This is seemingly another example of the interest of the bargaining council, and the parties thereto, enjoying preference over the interest of the industry.

 

The Minister of Employment and Labour will no doubt hide behind legislative provisions, claiming that he has no discretion in extending agreements where certain legal prerequisites have been met. He may well be right in this argument; however, is it not incumbent on a Minister, whose department is the guardian and driver of employment in the country, to engage the Council on the timing of the extension request?

 

Be that as it may, employers in the sector should take note of the following:

 

• The scope of the Council is as follows:
• the Province of the Western Cape;
• the Province of the Eastern Cape;
• the Province of the Northern Cape;
• the Province of the Free State;
• the Province of KwaZulu-Natal;
• the Province of North West, excluding the magisterial district of Brits and Rustenburg;
• the Province of Mpumalanga, excluding the magisterial district of Witbank;
• the Limpopo Province, excluding the magisterial district of Warmbaths; and
• the magisterial districts of Heidelberg, Nigel, Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Oberholzer, Meyerton and Carltonville.

 

The industries concerned are the tearoom, restaurant, catering, coffee shop, pub, tavern, roadhouse, café, snack bar, fast food outlet, convenience store, industrial or commercial caterer, function caterer, contract caterer, catering and associated activities, without in any way limiting the ordinary meaning of the expression and include(s) the sector or sectors and/or establishment(s) in which person(s) carry on the business or in which employers and employees are associated, for the purpose(s) of preparing, baking, providing, supplying, serving, selling, processing and producing meals. These shall include the provision of meals in bulk, edibles and beverages on any premises. Included would be all operations incidental to, or in support of the employers’ enterprise in relation to any of the above-mentioned activities and would further include:

 

• all franchisors where such franchisor or their employee(s) are associated with the activities prescribed above; and
• the baking of wheaten products which includes pies, snacks, confectionaries and pizzas for sale directly to customers for consumption whether on- or off the premises where such products are baked.

 

The Bargaining Council shall not apply to the following business areas:

 

• any casino and hotel industry and all activities that are ancillary and incidental to carrying on the primary activities of such industries. For the purpose of this exclusion, such primary activities are to be carried on, managed and operated solely and exclusively by the hotel or casino, as the case may be, at which these activities are undertaken and such activities must form an integral part of the business and operations of the hotel and/or casino in question;
• any catering facility of whatever nature which is owned, managed or operated by sports and recreation clubs, on its own premises and which, in turn, provides food and beverages to its members and patrons from the premises from which its sports and recreation facilities are undertaken;
• the business conducted by filling and/or service stations including ancillary activities forming part of the filling station linked to the convenience store environment, inclusive of the preparing, serving and selling of food/beverages to customers but excluding activities of separately registered establishments whose sole activities relate to the restaurant, tearoom and catering environment; and
• any outlet that prepares and sells food and beverages and is operated as part of a supermarket undertaking and which, in turn, is owned, managed and operated by the supermarket in question and conducted from the premises of such supermarket.
• All other employers in the Tearoom, Restaurant and Catering industries not operating in the areas covered by the geographical scope of this council, will either fall under the scope of the Bargaining Council for the Food Retail, Restaurant, Catering and Allied Trades (Pretoria) or the Sectoral Determination for the Hospitality Sector.

 

Please click here to view the Main Agreement for the Bargaining Council for the Fast Food, Restaurant and Catering Trades: Semi-National.

 

Regards

Jaco Swart

National Manager

 

NEASA 24/7 NATIONAL HOTLINE: 086 016 3272

legalhotline@neasa.co.za

(please have your membership number at hand)

 

We are all in this together.

Privileged and challenged to be South African.