Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service form a binding agreement between Sous-Chef ("Sous-Chef", "we"), and the entity or natural person who registers an account ("Customer", "you").

Where the Customer also processes personal information of its employees through the service, the parties additionally enter into the Operator Agreement, which forms part of these Terms.

1.1 Order of precedence

The agreement between the parties consists of these Terms, the Operator Agreement, and the Service Agreement the Customer accepts on activating an organisation. If they conflict, the following order applies, highest first:

1. the Operator Agreement, on any question of the processing or protection of personal information;
2. these Terms of Service, on every other question;
3. the Service Agreement, which prevails only as to the commercial particulars it records — plan, billing cycle, fee basis and start date.

Nothing in any of these documents limits a right the Customer has under South African law that cannot be limited by agreement, including under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 where it applies to the Customer.

2. The service

Sous-Chef is a multi-tenant SaaS platform that helps South African employers manage employees, leave, schedules, contracts, disciplinaries and statutory documents. The service is delivered over the public internet and depends on third-party infrastructure providers listed on our sub-processors page.

The service is intended to support compliance with the BCEA, LRA and the CATRA Collective Agreement, but it does not constitute legal advice. The Customer remains responsible for the accuracy of information it enters and for the lawfulness of decisions it takes in reliance on the service.

2.1 Employment start dates and leave accrual

Leave accrual, notice periods and severance calculations are anchored to each employee's employment start date. Where no start date has been recorded for an employee, the service falls back to the date that employee's record was created on the platform, so that leave continues to accrue rather than stopping altogether. That fallback date is an approximation and may be later than the employee's true start date, which would under-state accrued leave and years of service.

The Customer is responsible for recording an accurate start date for every employee. An owner or admin can set or correct it at any time from the member's profile; every change is written to the Customer's audit log with the previous and new value. Once a start date is recorded it takes precedence over the fallback from the next nightly run. Correcting a start date does not retrospectively recalculate leave already accrued — the Customer remains responsible for any adjustment it owes an employee under the BCEA.

3. Accounts and access

• You must register with a real, working business email address
• You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential
• You must promptly revoke access for users who leave your organisation
• The owner and admin roles can invite other users; you are responsible for the actions of all users in your organisation

4. Customer data and roles under POPIA

The Customer is the responsible party for the personal information of its employees-members entered into the service. Sous-Chef is the operator and processes that information only on the Customer's documented instructions, on the terms of the Operator Agreement.

The Customer warrants that it has a lawful basis to load each employee's personal information into the service and that it has provided each employee with the notice required by POPIA s18. Sous-Chef supports this by capturing a per-member POPIA notice on first login.

5. Fees, trials and billing

• Pricing is published on the pricing section of our website and incorporated into these Terms by reference.
• The 14-day free trial is offered without a credit card. At the end of the trial you may select a paid plan or your data is exported and deleted in line with the retention schedule in our privacy policy.
• All amounts are in South African Rand and exclude VAT unless stated otherwise.
• Fees are payable in advance for the chosen billing period (monthly or yearly). Late payment may suspend access until cured.

5.1 Refunds

Because cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period already paid for (section 11), the Customer keeps the service for everything it has paid for and we do not, as a general rule, refund a period already consumed.

We do refund, pro-rata for the unused part of a pre-paid term:

• where the Customer objects on reasonable grounds to a new sub-processor and terminates as a result (Operator Agreement section 6);
• where the Customer terminates because we are in material breach and have not remedied it within a reasonable period after notice; and
• where we terminate the service, or discontinue it, other than for the Customer's breach.

This section does not limit the Customer's statutory rights. In particular, where the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 applies to the Customer, section 14 of that Act gives a right to cancel a fixed-term agreement on twenty (20) business days' notice and limits any cancellation charge to a reasonable amount. Where that right applies it prevails over this section, and we will calculate any charge accordingly.

6. Acceptable use

You may not, and must not allow any user to:

• Use the service for any unlawful purpose
• Upload personal information you are not lawfully entitled to process
• Attempt to access another organisation's data, reverse-engineer the service or probe for vulnerabilities outside a sanctioned disclosure programme
• Use the service to send spam, harass, defame or impersonate another person
• Resell or sublicense the service without our written consent

7. Intellectual property

Sous-Chef and its licensors retain all rights, title and interest in the service, including all software, content templates and design. The Customer retains all rights in its data; nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of Customer data to Sous-Chef. We may use anonymised, aggregated data to improve the service.

8. Third-party sub-processors

The service is built on third-party infrastructure and email providers. The current list, their hosting regions and the categories of personal information they handle is published at /legal/sub-processors. We notify Customer-administrators by email before adding, replacing or materially changing a sub-processor.

9. Warranties and disclaimers

We warrant that we will provide the service with reasonable skill and care and in accordance with applicable South African law. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is otherwise provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis and we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied.

10. Limitation of liability

Subject to applicable law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of these Terms. Each party's total aggregate liability under these Terms is capped at the fees paid by the Customer to Sous-Chef in the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for wilful misconduct, fraud, or any liability that cannot be limited under law (including under the CPA where applicable).

11. Term and termination

• These Terms apply for as long as you have an account.
• You may cancel at any time from within the service or by emailing support; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.
• We may suspend or terminate access for material breach (including unpaid fees, unlawful use, or breach of the acceptable-use rules in section 6) on reasonable notice, except where the breach is incapable of remedy.
• On termination, we make Customer data available for export for 30 days, after which the data is deleted in line with the retention schedule in our privacy policy.

12. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

Before either party commences litigation, both will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute by negotiation between senior representatives within fifteen (15) business days of written notice of the dispute. If that fails, either party may refer the dispute to the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Local Division, Johannesburg, to which the parties submit on a non-exclusive basis.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking interim or urgent relief in any competent forum, deprives either party of a right to approach a court that South African law confers regardless of agreement, or affects the Customer's right to refer a matter to the Information Regulator, the National Consumer Commission or any other body with statutory jurisdiction.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The version number and effective date at the top of this page change with each update. Material changes are notified to Customer-administrators by email at least 14 days before they take effect; continued use after that date constitutes acceptance.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms: sous.chef.south.africa@gmail.com. Privacy / data-subject requests: sous.chef.south.africa@gmail.com.

← Back to home