The law regarding domestic workers is detailed in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and subsequent amendments. This Act covers any staff who work in your home including gardeners, cleaners, domestic drivers, cooks, carers, nannies and au pairs.
Minimum Wage
The new National Minimum Wage was Gazetted on 3rd February 2024, increased to R27.58 per hour and is effective 01 March 2024.
A payslip must always be given. The employer must keep the payslips for three years.
Unemployment Insurance (UIF)
Any employee who works more than 24 hours per month must be registered for UIF. A
total of 2% of the employee’s salary must be paid to UIF each month – 1% must be paid by the employer, and the other 1% may be deducted from the employee’s wages.
Deductions
The following, optional, deductions are permitted by agreement:
- Medical insurance
- Savings, pension fund contributions or loans
Garnishee order deductions are permitted if the employer has been ordered by the courts to deduct money.
Working Hours
Domestic workers are allowed to work a maximum of 45 ordinary hours per week.
– Maximum of 9 hours per day if working for 5 days a week
– Maximum of 8 hours per day if working more than 5 days a week
Overtime
- Normal overtime: This includes extra hours worked Monday to Saturday and must be paid at 1.5 times the normal hourly pay.
- Double pay overtime: This includes extra hours that your domestic worker may work on Sundays and public holidays.
There are restrictions on overtime work:
- No more than three hours of overtime may be worked on a normal nine-hour workday.
- No more than 15 hours of overtime may be worked in a week.
- Employees may not work seven days consecutively.
Leave Entitlement
A domestic worker is entitled to the following types of leave:
- Annual leave – Three weeks per year or 1 day for 17 days worked. For those who do not work 5 days per week or 8 hours a day, leave can be calculated at 1 hour for 17 hours worked.
Should an employee only work 1 day a week, then the calculation is as follows:
1 x by 52 (52 weeks in the year) = 52 days divide this by 17 because they are entitled to 1 day for every 17 days worked and we get 3.06 days per annum leave entitlement.
- Sick leave – Sick leave is calculated on a three-year cycle. Employees are entitled to 30 days (six weeks) of paid sick leave over three years.
- Maternity leave – Four consecutive months of unpaid leave. Employees are entitled to claim a % of their loss of earnings, from UIF.
- Family responsibility leave – Five days per year.
- Parental leave and adoptive parental leave – Parents, other than the birth mother, are entitled to 10 consecutive days’ parental leave from the birth or adoption day of their child.
The domestic worker’s employment contract
Every domestic worker must have a signed employment contract of which the provisions cannot override the Basic Conditions of Employment. The contract must contain the following information:
- The full name and address of the employer.
- The name and occupation of the domestic worker, or a brief description of the work for which he/she is employed.
- The place of work, and where he/she is required or permitted to work.
- Date of employment.
- The domestic worker’s ordinary hours of work and days of work.
- The domestic worker’s wage or rate and method of payment.
- The rate of pay for overtime work.
- Any other cash payments he/she is entitled to (like transportation).
- Any payment in kind he/she is entitled to and the value of payment in kind (like food and accommodation).
- How frequently wages will be paid.
- Any deductions to be made from wages.
- The leave he/she is entitled to.
- The period of notice required to terminate employment, or if employment is for a specified period, the date when employment is to terminate.
Termination of Employment
- You can dismiss your domestic worker with the required notice period.
(If your domestic worker has worked for you for less than six months a one week notice period is required. If your domestic worker has worked for you for more than six months you must give four weeks’ notice.)
- You can also dismiss your domestic worker for a disciplinary issue in which case you have to follow the following legal process:
- You will first have to issue three written warnings, which the employee must sign.
- Then hold a disciplinary hearing. Keep it as simple and informal as possible.
- If the conclusion of the hearing is that dismissal can take place you may terminate the employment with the above required notice periods. In cases of gross misconduct, you may dismiss an employee outright with no notice period. Gross misconduct includes theft or endangering the life of a family member.
- If you retrench an employee, and you cannot find them alternative employment, you must pay severance pay – one week’s pay for every 12 months of continuous service in addition to the months’ notice.
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