A roster looks simple until you try to work out what a week actually pays. Getting this right is how you catch a mistake in your hours before it reaches your pay, and how you plan a month you can survive.
Work out one shift first. A shift from 08:00 to 16:30 is eight and a half hours. If it carries an unpaid half hour break, you are paid for eight.
The break is where most people get this wrong. Ask whether your break is paid or unpaid on your first day, because it changes every week of the year.
Then add the week. Five shifts of 8 paid hours is 40 hours. At R30 an hour that week is R1 200 before deductions.
Watch for the parts that pay differently. Overtime is normally paid at one and a half times your ordinary rate. Sundays and public holidays are usually paid at a higher rate again. Your contract says which rate applies to you, so read it once, properly, and keep it.
Keep your own record. A note on your phone with the date, start, finish and break for every shift takes ten seconds and it is the only thing that lets you query a payslip with confidence. Where a roster is changed by hand mid week, that record is worth a great deal.
You worked 06:00 to 14:30 with an unpaid 30 minute break, five days, at R28 an hour. Your payslip shows 42,5 hours.
What happens: They have paid you for the breaks, which sounds good until you realise the number is simply wrong and the next correction may go the other way. A payslip that does not match your hours is worth a polite question either way.
What happens: Correct. Now you know there is a difference of 2,5 hours to ask about, and you can ask with the actual numbers rather than a feeling that something is off.
My shifts are different lengths every week
Then the phone note matters more, not less. Write each shift down as you finish it: date, start, finish, break. At the end of the month you add the paid hours and multiply once. Ten seconds a day is cheaper than an argument you cannot win.
What counts as overtime?
Broadly, hours beyond your normal agreed working hours, and the law sets the usual overtime rate at one and a half times normal pay. There are limits on how much overtime you can be asked to work and it generally has to be agreed. Your contract and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act are the places to check, and the Department of Employment and Labour answers questions on it.
I am paid a monthly salary, not by the hour
Then the roster still matters, because it tells you whether you are working the hours the salary was agreed for. If your shifts have crept up by five hours a week and nothing else changed, that is worth a conversation, and the phone record is what makes the conversation possible.
Before you move on
- Find out whether your break is paid or unpaid
- Write down every shift: date, start, finish, break
- Read your contract once for the overtime and Sunday rates
Check what you know
4 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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