Acts Online
GT Shield

Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 (Act No. 75 of 1997)

Sectoral Determinations

Sectoral Determination No 5: Learnerships

19. Annual leave

 

(1) A learner who has entered into a learnership agreement in respect of learnership requiring more than 120 credits is entitled to one week’s paid leave for every 40 credits that the learner earns during the learnership or every four months worked whichever is the lesser.

 

(2) A learner is entitled to take leave referred to in subclause (1) during learnership.

 

(3) A learner who has accumulated sufficient leave is entitled to take up to three weeks leave consecutively in any year of the learnership.

 

(4) Unless a learner elects to accumulate leave for the purpose of subclause (3), an employer must grant leave not later than four months after the leave was earned.

 

(5) An employer may not require or permit a learner to take annual leave during:
(a) any other period of leave to which the learner is entitled in terms of clauses 21, 24 and 26; or
(b) any period of notice of termination of learnership.

 

(6) Despite subclause (5), an employer must permit a learner, at the learner's written request, to take leave during a period of unpaid leave.

 

(7) An employer may reduce a learner's entitlement to leave by the number of days of occasional leave on full remuneration granted to the learner at the learner's request.

 

(8) An employer must grant a learner an additional day of paid leave if a public holiday falls on a day during a learner's annual leave on which the learner would ordinarily have worked.

 

(9) An employer may not require or permit a learner to work for the employer during any period of annual leave.

 

(10) Leave must be taken:
(a) in accordance with an agreement between the employer and learner; or
(b) if there is no agreement in terms of paragraph (a), at a time determined by the employer in accordance with this clause.

 

(11) An employer may not pay a learner instead of granting paid leave in terms of this clause except:
(a) on termination of learnership; and
(b) in accordance with clause 31(b).