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New leave benefits in the workplace for parents
On 18 December 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Sections 1 to 7 of the Labour Laws Amendment Act of 2018 will come into effect on January 1, 2020. Amongst others, this effectively amends the Basic Conditions of Employment Act to provide for the much-anticipated parental leave, adoption leave and commissioning parental or surrogate leave.
As from January 1 this year, the three days family responsibility leave that male employees were entitled to upon the birth of a child, was replaced with parental leave as per the Labour Law Amendment Act of 2018. The remainder of Section 27 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act regarding family responsibility leave remains intact, entitling employees to three days family responsibility leave when a child younger than 18 years is ill or alternatively upon the death of a family member as listed in the Act.
Hereunder a brief summary of the three new leave categories. All three categories are unpaid, but an employee may submit a claim to the UIF. This will be capped at 66% of his/her earnings up to a maximum ceiling of the current earnings threshold, i.e. R205 433.30 per annum or R17 119.44 per month. Please also note that in the case of Parental Leave the Act talks about 10 consecutive days leave and not 10 working days leave.
| Parental Leave | Adoption Leave | Commissioning Parental Leave |
| An employee who is a parent of a child will be entitled to 10 consecutive day’s parental leave. | This relates to the adoption of a child that is below the age of 2-years old. | This leave relates to surrogate motherhood. |
| This will effectively replace the 3 days paternity leave currently provided for in the BCEA (used for the birth of a child which has now been deleted under family responsibility leave), but the current maternity leave provisions in the BCEA remain unchanged. | A single adoptive parent is entitled to 10 consecutive weeks leave. | The commissioning parent who will primarily be responsible for looking after the child (primary commissioning parent) will be entitled to commissioning parental leave. |
| If there are two adoptive parents, the other would be entitled to 10 consecutive day’s normal parental leave. | If there are two commissioning parents, they can choose: if the one takes commissioning parental leave, the other can take normal parental leave. | |
| It is up to the adoptive parents to decide who takes adoption leave and who takes normal parental leave. | The one who takes commissioning parental leave will be entitled to 10 consecutive weeks’ leave. The other would be entitled to 10 consecutive days’ normal parental leave. | |
| Parental leave may commence on the day the child is born. | Leave can commence on the day that the adoption order is granted. | In both cases, leave can commence on the date of the birth of the child. |
| The employee will have to give at least one month’s written notice of:
| The employee will have to give at least one month’s written notice of:
| The employee will have to give at least one month’s written notice of:
|
| Benefit is unpaid by employer and can be claimed from UIF. | Benefit is unpaid by employer and can be claimed from UIF. | Benefit is unpaid by employer and can be claimed from UIF. |
