Taking into consideration the service delivery needs of the Department, as well as the needs of the community and users of services, I am pleased to inform you that the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has adopted a policy with regard to staggered working hours. Staggered working hours mean that an employee may negotiate with the supervisor his/her own working hours whilst still completing a 40 hour work week. This policy is primarily to support staff members who, due to their particular personal circumstances, find it difficult to adhere to the prescribed / current working hours, viz. 07: 30 to 16: 00 daily.

The policy provides for office-based employees of the WCED who observe normal working hours to be allowed to observe staggered working hours with effect from 1 April 2013 in accordance with the following principles and measures:

  1. the starting time not be earlier than 07:00 and the closing time not later than 16:30;

  2. the core time is set at 08:00 till 15:30 (7˝ hours). During this core period, with the exception of the lunch break, all employees should be on duty;

  3. a lunch break of 30 minutes from 12:30 to 13:00/13:30, subject to a total of 8 hours (excluding lunch breaks) being worked daily;

  4. the normal working hours of the Department remain at 07:30 to 16:00 with lunch time from 12:30 – 13:00. For any exception to this, employees will have to make arrangements by completing the attached form (Annexure A);

  5. the authority to approve individual requests for deviation from the normal working hours, is delegated to Directors of the various components in the Department;

  6. agreed upon working times will remain in force until approval for change has been received after a minimum period of 6 months;

  7. the prescripts in respect of remunerated overtime will remain unchanged. This means that an officer’s overtime period will commence immediately after the completion of 8 hours service rendered on a week day;

  8. copies of forms where deviation of normal hours has been approved, must be submitted to the Directorate: Human Resource Administration (Rural & Office Based) for record purposes;

  9. employees must ensure that they swipe their access cards when entering the building to commence work and swipe again when leaving the building at closing time.

Staff are called upon to ensure that they adhere to the working hours that have been approved.


SIGNED: PA VINJEVOLD
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2013:05:02

Annexure A  (size: 23 KB)