{"id":8893,"date":"2015-12-01T16:04:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T14:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/?p=8893"},"modified":"2020-03-05T16:06:55","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T14:06:55","slug":"thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Thought of the Week | 13th Cheques: The end-of-year debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of the year again, and with it the topic of 13th cheques arises. Employees very often believe they have a right to receive one, and are aggrieved when they don\u2019t. Employers are sometimes unsure as to whether to award or not, and rely on contractual discretionary clauses to explain their actions.<\/p>\n<p>Our law is fundamentally simple in this regard. Employees are not entitled to a 13th cheque, unless specifically stipulated in their terms of employment. Very often employment contracts mention 13th cheques and\/or bonuses which are payable \u201cin the sole discretion\u201d of the employer. This does not give rise to a right, but confirms the position that any such payment is an <i>ex gratia<\/i> payment. Employers are not obliged to make any <i>ex gratia<\/i> payment, unless agreed to and guaranteed in non-discretionary terms.<\/p>\n<p>Any queries in this regard can be directed to <a href=\"mailto:jamesf@stbb.co.za?subject=Re+STBB+Thought+of+the+Week+%7C+13th+Cheques:+The+end-of-year+debate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #e66a21;\">James Foxcroft<\/span><\/a> in our Labour Law Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of the year again, and with it the topic of 13th cheques arises. Employees very often believe they have a right to receive one, and are aggrieved when they don\u2019t. Employers are sometimes unsure as to whether<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":3179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-of-the-week"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thought of the Week | 13th Cheques: The end-of-year debate - STBB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Foxcroft\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James Foxcroft\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/62115202c14af64e89192320f91a76ae\"},\"headline\":\"Thought of the Week | 13th Cheques: The end-of-year debate\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-01T14:04:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-05T14:06:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":164,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/yoosun-won-6Lm3EcOXYGY-unsplash_banner.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Thought Of The Week\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/thought-of-the-week-13th-cheques-the-end-of-year-debate\\\/\",\"name\":\"Thought of the Week | 13th Cheques: The end-of-year debate - 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