Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995)

Notices

National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry

Main Collective Agreement

Part A : Provisions for the Eastern Cape Region

3. Definitions (A - E)

Purchase

"Act"

means the Labour Relations Act No. 66, 1995;

"band-knife cutter"

means an employee, other than a cutter-out, engaged in cutting out garments or parts of garments from a "lay" or "layers" of material with a band-knife;

"beader"

means an employee who is engaged in rolling the open end of dipped gloves to form a bead ring of rubber, and in assisting with coagulant dipping and oven drying or curing operations;

"boiler attendant"

means an employee engaged in firing a boiler and maintaining the water level and steam pressure;

"checker in the knitting section"

means an employee in the knitting section engaged in checking garments during folding and bagging operations and/or checking unfinished garments or parts of knitted garments for faults;

"chlorinator"

means an employee who is engaged in measuring and mixing ingredients for the chlorination (washing) process, and in loading, unloading and operating chlorination equipment in the manufacture of rubber gloves and in transferring gloves to rinse water;

"cleaner"

means an employee engaged in dusting or sweeping inside the establishment;

"cleaning"

means the removal of spots, marks or foreign matter from materials or garments and/or the removal of threads;

"clerk"

means an employee who is engaged in writing, typing or filing or in any other form of clerical work, and includes a cashier, a telephone switchboard operator and an operator of a machine used for accounting and calculating purposes or of a punch card machine, but does not include any other class of employee elsewhere defined in this clause, notwithstanding the fact that clerical work may form part of such employee"s work;

"clicker"

means an employee who sorts, selects, marks in and subsequently cuts leather garments by means of a clicking knife from leather supplied to him;

"cloakroom attendant"

means an employee who is in charge of any change room and/or room in which employees eat and/or any rooms or lockers in which employees store their personal effects and who may in addition supervise the cleaning of such rooms and ablution facilities and shall include any person who is in charge of first-aid;

"Clothing Industry" or "industry"

means, without in any way limiting the ordinary meaning of the expression, the industry in which employers and their employees are associated for the making of all classes of the undermentioned items of apparel/clothing/garments:

Belts (manufactured from cloth), braces, brassieres, caps, collars, corsetry, cummerbunds, gloves, handkerchiefs, hats, hosiery (including ladies" stockings, pantihose and socks), knitted outerwear, knitted underwear; nightwear (including pyjamas), outerwear, protective wear (including overalls and wetsuits), scarves, shirts, suspenders, ties (including bowties), and underwear.

A. and includes —

(a)

all operations incidental thereto and consequent thereon and all succeeding processes or operations performed in connection therewith carried on by such employers and any of their employees irrespective of the process or method used in such making and irrespective of whether such processes or operations are performed on the premises of such employers, or elsewhere;

(b)

all types of hand-sewing operations (including beading and embroidery), whether by hand and/or machine, on garments and/or parts of garments and irrespective of whether or not such operations are performed by such employers and any of their employees or by an establishment or persons undertaking such work on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

(c)	any of the aforementioned items made for quantity production tailoring made to the order of any government department, provincial administration, S A Airways, Telkom, Transnet or local authority;

(d)	any part(s) of garments whether by means of a knitting process or otherwise;

(e)	design-room services, irrespective of whether or not such services are provided by such employers and any of their employees or by an establishment or persons undertaking such work on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

(f)	fully-fashioned and/or semi-fashioned garments knitted on circular, flat or full-fashioned machinery;

(g)	screen process printing on garments and parts of garments performed in a clothing, textile and/or knitting establishment;

(h)	tailored outer garments for the execution of special measure orders from dealers whose customers" measurements are taken by or on the responsibility of such dealers;

(i)	the changing of labels, irrespective of whether or not such operation is performed by such employers and any of their employees or by an establishment or persons undertaking such work on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

(j)	the making of button-holes, irrespective of whether or not such operation is performed by such employers and any of their employees or by an establishment or persons undertaking such work on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

(k)

the ironing of garments and/or parts of garments irrespective of whether or not such ironing is done in the establishment in which such items were manufactured or in an establishment or by persons undertaking such work on newly manufactured garments on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

(l)	the making up of garments from knitted fabric in the establishment in which the fabric was knitted;

(m)	the making up of sample garments and/or parts of garments, irrespective of whether or not such operation is performed by such employers and any of their employees or by an establishment or persons undertaking such work on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

(n)	the marking-in and/or cutting of garments or parts of garments, irrespective of whether or not such operation(s) is/(are) performed by such employers and any of their employees or by an establishment or persons undertaking such work on behalf of such employers and any of their employees; and

(o)

the packing of garments and/or parts of garments irrespective of whether or not such packing is done in the establishment in which such items were manufactured or in an establishment or by persons undertaking such work with newly manufactured garments on behalf of such employers and any of their employees;

B. but excludes —

(a)	belts, braces, garters, suspenders and armlets manufactured from leather;

(b)	boxing gloves;

(c)	retail dressmaking, i.e., the making of single garments to the measurement of individual persons;

(d)	retail millinery, i.e., the making of hats in shops for sale in such shops and the making of single hats to the measurement of individual persons;

(e)	tailor-made garments for individual persons, provided such garments are not manufactured in a factory.

“complying employer”

means an employer whose company or concern is fully registered with the Council or a council which amalgamated to form the National Bargaining Council, which has given effect to the applicable Council Main and Benefit Fund Collective Agreements in each of its establishments or has received due exemption therefrom, who is up to date with Council and any Benefit Fund contributions, trade union, employer subscriptions or who has implemented a signed Council-approved arrears repayment plan and who has registered all permanent and contract employees in the Council;

[Definition substituted by section 3(1) of Notice No. R. 421, GG44572, dated 14 May 2021]

"compounder"

means an employee who is engaged in the measuring by volume and mass and the mixing of ingredients used in compounds in the manufacture of rubber gloves, and in operation and cleaning of mixing equipment and the drawing of chemicals and ingredients from stores;

"Council"

means the Cape Chamber (Eastern Cape sub-chamber) of the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry;

"cutter-out"

means an employee engaged in cutting out garments or parts of garments from a "lay" or "layers" of material by electric hand knife or by shears;

"designer"

means an employee engaged in designing and/or making patterns;

"despatcher"

means an employee who under general supervision is engaged in the making up of orders;

"despatcher, unqualified"

means a despatcher who has had less than one year"s experience;

"dipper"

means an employee who is engaged in dipping formers into compounds in the manufacture of rubber gloves, and in preparing and cleaning equipment, topping up tanks, inspecting compounds, loading drip racks and ovens, loading dipping gantry, operating dipping machines, finger tip control leaching, if applicable, loading and unloading curing ovens, stripping, checking for quality on a dip gauge, checking the thickness and visual appearance of gloves, and filling in reduction figures on a board; and falls into the following categories:

Category A: Small plant/conveyor/nitrile/cut resist dipper;

Category B: Gauntlet tank dipper;

Category C: Electrician"s glove dipper;

"establishment"

means any place in which any operation in connection with the Clothing Industry is carried on;

"examiner"

means an employee, other than a checker in the knitting section, who is engaged in the final examination for quality requirements of finished garments;

"experience"

means the total length of all periods of employment in the Industry of an employee in respect of whom wages are specified in this part of the Agreement, and shall be deemed to be continuous from the time the employee enters his employer"s service until the time such service is terminated: Provided that an employee whose services are terminated at the end of his employer"s working year and who resumes work with his former employer within 14 days of the re-opening of the employer"s factory shall be deemed to have worked continuously;