- From 1 May 2026, employees earning above R269 600 a year fall outside core BCEA protections on working hours, overtime, rest periods and public holiday pay.
- The exclusion applies automatically and uniformly across all sectors, with no separate agreement or designation required.
- Only fixed, regular remuneration counts toward the threshold. Allowances, achievement awards and overtime payments are excluded from the calculation.
Workers earning above R269 600 a year are about to lose some of the most fundamental protections in South African labour law.
From 1 May 2026, they will fall outside key provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the rules that govern working hours, overtime, meal intervals, rest periods, Sunday work and public holiday pay.
The earnings threshold is the mechanism the Act uses to determine who falls outside its protections. Once an employee crosses that line, earning above R269 600 a year from 1 May 2026, those provisions simply stop applying.
What the exclusion covers
The exclusion sweeps across Sections 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17(2) and 18(3) of the Act, the provisions that collectively govern how working time is structured and what employees are entitled to.
Section 9 covers ordinary hours of work, while Section 10 sets the rules on overtime, when it can be required and how it must be paid. Sections 11 and 12 deal with compressed working weeks and the averaging of hours. Section 14 protects meal intervals, and Section 15 guarantees daily and weekly rest periods.
Section 16 governs Sunday work, covering when it is permitted and what premium applies. Section 17(2) addresses night work in specific circumstances, and section 18(3) sets out the payment rules for public holiday work.
Once an employee’s earnings clear R269 600, none of these protections apply. The Act simply does not impose those requirements on their employment.
Who is affected
The rule applies uniformly, with no carve-outs for particular sectors and no special categories. The only question is whether the employee’s earnings clear the threshold.
A software engineer, a senior manager, a specialist consultant: if they earn above R269 600, the listed protections fall away regardless of what they do or where they work.
How earnings are calculated
For the threshold, earnings means regular annual remuneration before deductions such as tax, pension contributions and medical aid. The focus is on what is fixed and recurring.
Not everything counts. Subsistence and transport allowances, achievement awards and overtime payments are expressly excluded from the calculation, so a bonus or a travel allowance will not push an employee over the line.
In practice, whether an employee crosses the threshold comes down to how their remuneration package is structured and what counts as regular pay.
What happens from 1 May 2026
The new threshold takes effect on 1 May 2026. From that date, any employee earning above R269 600 a year is automatically outside the specified provisions of the Act.
There is no opt-in, no separate agreement and no formal designation required. The exclusion kicks in by operation of law the moment the earnings level is exceeded.
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