Compensation and Working Time
Overtime Compensation
Botswana, normal working hours are 8 per day and 48 per week, with overtime limited to 14 hours and paid at 150% of the regular wage. Specific regulations apply to shift workers, essential services, and young workers, ensuring rest breaks and work-hour limits.
Normal working hours in Botswana are 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week.
An employee is not required under his contract of employment to work more than five consecutive hours without a period of rest which is not less than 30 minutes or more than an ordinary working period of eight hours in any one day or more than 48 hours in any one week. However, an employee engaged under his contract of employment in regular shift work can be required by his employer to work more than five consecutive hours without a period of rest, more than eight hours in any one day or more than 48 hours in any week. That being said, the average number of hours worked over four weeks is not to exceed 48 hours per week.
Where the working week is one of five days, the hours of work in each day can be increased to nine but the work hours must be interrupted by a period or periods of rest of not less than one hour in the aggregate during which period the employee is to be provided with the opportunity to have a meal.
An employee can be required by his employer to exceed the limit of hours or to work during a rest period prescribed in case of an actual or threatened accident; essential work, the performance of which is Crucial to the life of the community; work essential for national defence or security; urgent work to be done to machinery or plant; an interruption of work which it was not reasonably possible to foresee; or work to be performed by employees in any industrial undertaking considered by the Minister of Labour to be vital to the economy of Botswana.
An employee is not required or permitted to work overtime for more than 14 hours in any week. The Minister can declare through an order published in the Gazette that the limitation upon overtime is not to apply to employees in a particular industry or undertaking.
If an employee is required to work more than the number of hours in the ordinary daily working period, the number of extra hours will be considered overtime, and the employee will be paid one and a half times (150% of the normal wage rate).
Where a contract of employment provides for the payment of wages without reference to the number of hours worked by the employee and further provides that he may be required to work overtime in exceptional circumstances, the worker is not entitled to the overtime unless the contract of employment provides.
A child cannot be required or permitted to work more than six hours a day or 30 hours a week. A child or young person cannot, without the express permission of the Commissioner, be required or permitted to work in an industrial undertaking for more than three consecutive hours in the case of a child or more than four consecutive hours in the case of a young person, without a period of rest which cannot be less than 30 minutes.
A young person cannot, without the express permission of the Commissioner in writing, be required or permitted to work in an industrial undertaking for more than seven hours a day. Where a young person employed on work in an industrial undertaking is attending school, then the hours of his attendance at school will be deemed to be hours of work in the industrial undertaking, unless it is a government institution or approved by public authority.
Source: §95, 97, 105 & 109 of the Employment Act, 1982 (Cap. 47:01)
Night Work Compensation
No provision concerning night work compensation could be located in the Employment Act.
Compensatory Holidays / Rest Days
Employees are entitled to a weekly rest period of at least 24 hours, typically on a Sunday. If required to work on a rest day or public holiday, they must receive double pay or a substitute rest day.
Every employee is to be granted by the employer every seven consecutive days a rest period comprising at least 24 consecutive hours.
This period is ordinarily Sunday or includes a Sunday. Where the employee is engaged on shift work, he must be granted a rest period comprising any period of 30 consecutive hours. Where an employee is required to work during a rest period, he must be granted a substitute rest period before the next weekly rest period or paid at least double the wages (200% of the normal wage rate) for working on a weekly rest day.
Any employee who works on a paid public holiday or on a day observed as a public holiday must either be paid at least double the wages (200% of the normal wage rate) or be granted a paid day off within 10 days immediately thereafter.
Source: §93, 95 & 99 of the Employment Act, 1982 (Cap. 47:01)
Weekend / Public Holiday Work Compensation
Employees working on a rest day or public holiday must receive double pay or a compensatory day off. Rest day compensation must be given before the next rest day, while public holiday compensation must be within 10 days.
Any employee who works on a weekly rest day, a paid public holiday, or a day observed as a public holiday must be paid a premium wage or given a compensatory holiday.
The monetary compensation is 200% of the normal wage rate for working on a weekly rest day or a public holiday. The compensatory holiday for weekly rest day must be granted before next weekly rest day. The compensatory holiday for working on a public holiday must be granted within 10 days of the said public holiday on which the worker was required to work.
Source: §94 and 99 of the Employment Act, 1982 (Cap. 47:01)
Regulations on Compensation
- Employment Act, 1982 (Cap. 47:01)1982 (Cap. 47:01)
