Podcast: How to set up employment contracts

It may be a pretty hectic existence between managing a farm and staff, but it’s crucial to do it correctly. Katlego Ngwane, a legal consultant and the proprietor of Katika Consulting, shares the importance of contractual agreements and understanding your rights as an employer or employee when compiling contracts.

You should always try to understand the law and your rights, says Ngwane. In South Africa, there are two legislations for the protection of citizens.

“What’s important and where we need to start, is the fact that we got two pieces of legislation that regulate employment contracts and what’s supposed to be in it: the Basic Conditions of the Employment Act and the Labour Relations Act,” says Ngwane.

If one does not know what to put into a contract, they can rely on these pieces of legislation to guide them in terms of what are the rights of employers and the rights of employees. This includes the responsibility and duties that each party has to one other.

What should be in an agreement?

According to Ngwane, an agreement is any piece of paper you sign. “But you can’t put things in there that are impossible to do or are illegal. You can’t put there that someone needs to work for you for 24 hours. It is illegal and impossible. It has to be practical to the particular circumstances that we are talking about,” Ngwane explains.

A lot of agricultural contracts will have terms about where workers live. If they are occupying a space on the land, the contract can state who can live there with the employees.

Salary is an important topic as well, especially the rate per hour.

“My advice to farmers is to be specific as possible in a contract because if there should be a disagreement or a dispute, [lawyers] rely on that piece of paper – who is wrong in that particular situation and who is right.”

In this episode, Ngwane gives more insight into the following: