Annual Leave
| 16.1 | Every employee except a casual employee shall be entitled, after 12 consecutive months" service with the same employer, to three weeks" leave on full pay. The three weeks shall include 18 working days. |
| 16.2 | An employee who has completed five continuous years" service with an employer, though not necessarily with the same employer, shall be entitled, on completion of the fifth year of employment, to 24 working days" leave on full pay. |
| 16.3 | An employee who is dismissed by an employer three months prior to the completion of 5 years" continuous service and who is, within 30 days after the completion of the five year period, re-engaged by the same employer, shall be entitled to the 24 days" leave provided for. |
| 16.4 | Annual leave shall fall due on the first working day after completion of each year of service. A year of service in respect of which an employee is entitled to annual leave is employment for twelve consecutive months calculated from the date of engagement. |
| 16.5 | An employer shall grant annual leave until not later than six months after the end of the annual leave cycle, after which it shall be forfeited. |
| 16.6 | Annual leave shall be taken— |
| 16.6.1 | in accordance with an agreement between the employer and employee; or |
| 16.6.2 | if there is no agreement in terms of 16.6.1 at a time determined by the employer in accordance with this clause. |
| 16.7 | An employer may not pay an employee instead of granting paid leave in terms of this clause except— |
| 16.7.1 | on termination of employment; and |
| 16.7.2 | in accordance with sections 40(b) and (c) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997. |
| 16.8 | In the event of an employee"s death, all leave pay accrued to the employee at that time shall be paid into the employee"s estate. |
| 16.9 | When an employee"s employment is terminated before the completion of 12 consecutive months" service, the employee shall be entitled to one seventeenth of the weekly wage which he was receiving when his employment was terminated in respect of each completed week of employment. An employee shall not be entitled to any leave pay if he worked for an employer for less than four weeks. |
| 16.10 | Any period during which an employee is on annual leave, or is absent from work owing to illness, or is absent from work on the instructions, or at the request, of the employer, shall be deemed to be employment. |
| 16.11 | An employer may not require or permit an employee to work during annual leave. |
| 16.12 | Annual leave may not run concurrently with notice of termination of employment or sick leave. |
Family Responsibility Leave
| 16.13 | An employer shall be obliged to give the father of a new-born child three days" leave ("paternity leave") starting from the day of the birth and ending two days afterwards. |
| 16.14 | An employer shall grant an employee, during each annual leave cycle, at the request of the employee, three days" paid leave, which the employee shall be entitled to take— |
| 16.14.1 | in terms of 16.13 when the employee"s child is born; or |
| 16.14.2 | when the employee"s child is sick |
Compassionate Leave
| 16.15 | An employer shall grant an employee, during each annual leave cycle, at the request of the employee, a maximum of six days" paid leave, which the employee shall be entitled to take on the death of one of the employee"s primary relatives. |
| 16.16 | A primary relative means— |
| 16.16.1 | the employee"s spouse or life partner; or |
| 16.16.2 | the employee"s parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling. |
| 16.17 | Compassionate leave shall start at the discretion of the employee, but not sooner than the day of the death and shall end six working days after the leave commenced. |
| 16.18 | An employer shall be obliged to pay an employee during such compassionate leave. |
| 16.19 | An employee shall be obliged to produce proof to the reasonable satisfaction of the employer as to the fact of the death and the fact that the deceased is a primary relative. If a dispute arises as to the reasonableness of the proof tendered by the employee on either count, the council shall be the final arbiter. |
| 16.20 | An employer shall be obliged to give an employee compassionate leave on the death of any relative of an employee who is not a primary relative. |
| 16.20.1 | In the event of compassionate leave being granted in terms of 16.20 the employee shall be entitled to compassionate leave of one day, but the employer shall not be obliged to pay the employee for that day. |
| 16.20.2 | An employee shall be obliged to produce proof to the reasonable satisfaction of the employer as to the fact of the death and the fact that the deceased is a relative. |
| 16.20.3 | If a dispute arises as to the reasonableness of the proof tendered by the employee on either count, the council shall be the final arbiter. |
| 16.21 | Clauses 16.13 to 16.20 shall apply only to employees who— |
| 16.21.1 | have been in employment with an employer for longer than four months; and |
| 16.21.2 | work for at least four days a week for that employer. |
| 16.22 | Subject to 16.23 an employer shall pay an employee for a day"s family responsibility leave taken in terms of 16.13 and 16.14 or compassionate leave taken in terms of 16.15 to 16.20:— |
| 16.22.1 | the remuneration or basic salary or wages an employee would ordinarily have received for work on that day; and |
| 16.22.2 | on the employee"s usual pay day. |
| 16.23 | An employee may take family responsibility leave in respect of the whole or part of a day. |
| 16.24 | Before paying an employee for leave in terms of this clause, an employer may require reasonable proof of an event referred to in 16.14 or 16.15 for which the leave is required. |
| 16.25 | An employee"s unused entitlement to leave in terms of 16.13 to 16.25 shall lapse at the end of the annual leave cycle in which it accrues. |
| 16.26 | A Collective Agreement may vary the number of days and the circumstances under which leave is to be granted in terms of 16.13 to 16.25. |
Maternity Leave
| 16.27 | No employer may require or permit any female employee to continue work during the period commencing four weeks prior to the expected date of her confinement and ending 13 weeks after the date of her confinement ("maternity leave"). An employer shall— |
| 16.27.1 | not be obliged to pay an employee during maternity leave; but |
| 16.27.2 | be obliged to reinstate such employee in employment if she presents herself for continuous employment not later than 13 weeks after the date of her confinement. |
| 16.28 | Notwithstanding the above, no employee may work for six weeks after the birth of her child, unless a medical practitioner or midwife certifies that she is fit to do so. |
Leave Pay for Commission-Earners - Payment
| 16.29 | Subject to the provisions of clause 16.29.1, when calculating normal annual leave pay for employees who earn commission, the following formula shall be used: |
| (i) | leave pay of 20% of their last 12 months Average PSC (Personal Services Commission); plus |
| (ii) | leave pay calculated on the basic salary as contained in the Remuneration/Basic Salary/Wage Schedules for that category of employee. |
Examples of how to calculate leave pay for commission-earners are contained in Annexure H.
| 16.29.1 | EXCEPT, where an employee takes ad-hoc leave of seven days or less, and the PSC (Personal Services Commission) earned by that employee during the specific month when their leave is taken is either the same as, or higher than their Average PSC (Personal Services Commission), in which case leave pay shall only be calculated on their basic salary as contained in the Remuneration/Basic Salary/Wage Schedules. |
| 16.29.2 | The calculation of remuneration of personal services will only apply to a maximum of one year"s statutory leave entitlement in any one service year (12 months from date of employment) |
