2019 New Human Resources Legislation for South African Business

NEW POSTER REQUIRED FOR
THE BASIC CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT ACT

2019 started with four new pieces of legislation in the Human Resource Space as well as new regulations for UIF and new rules for the CCMA.  Over the next few weeks Connold & Associates will be sending out information with regard to the new legislation in a series of blogs.  The intention is to inform you of the changes, particularly where changes need to be made to policies and procedures.

The legislation promulgated on 1 January 2019 is:

1. The National Minimum Wages Act
2. The Labour Law Amendment Act
3. The Labour Relations Amendment Act
4. The Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Act

We will begin with:

The labour law amendment act

&

the EFFECT ON THE BASIC CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT ACT

The Labour Law Amendment Act was introduced by a private member of parliament (Mrs C Dudley) and introduces new leave classifications in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act which are:

Adoption LEave

This is available for any employee who has adopted a child under the age of two years in an adoption process which complies with the Children’s Act of 2005.  The leave granted is ten weeks dated either from the day the adoption order becomes final or the day the child is handed over to the care of the employee by a competent court, pending the finalisation of the adoption. 

The employee must notify the employer one month prior to the adoption (or as soon as is reasonably practicable) of the date on which the employee will embark on leave and the date that they will return from leave.

Commissioning Leave

This is available for any employee who is a commissioning parent in a surrogate motherhood agreement in terms of the Children’s At of 2005. The leave granted is also ten weeks dated from the day the child is born. 

The employee must notify the employer one month prior to the anticipated birth of the child (or as soon as is reasonably practicable) of the date on which the employee will embark on leave and the date that they will return from leave.

Parental Leave

This leave replaces family responsibility leave for the reason of the birth of a child (paternity leave) which has been deleted from the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

10 days parental leave is granted to:

• The father of a child
• One of the adoptive parents of a child (the other parent will apply for adoption leave)
• One of the parents in a surrogate motherhood agreement (the other parent will apply for commissioning leave).

In implementing this leave into the workplace, we need to consider the following:

1. As with maternity leave, all this leave, including parental leave, is not paid by the company, but claims for payment can be made through the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
2. If you have a policy that pays towards maternity leave, we need to consider how to fairly accommodate adoption and commissioning leave in a similar way
3. Essentially, male employees are losing a three day fully paid paternity leave for an unpaid ten-day parental leave.  What is the fair way of accommodating our fathers going forward?

It is important to note that this leave is now in place and that employers need to include it in letters of appointment and in leave policies with effect from the promulgation date. We also need to update the posters on the wall.

Please contact our associates if you have more questions.