If it is not reasonably possible for the employee to do so, the employee is required to notify the employer in writing that they intend to begin taking parental leave and return to work as soon as reasonably possible after parental leave has been ordered. Parental leave is a great opportunity for parents to connect with their children and give each other the support they need. A single adoptive parent is entitled to 10 consecutive weeks of adoption leave. If there are two adoptive parents, only one is entitled to 10 consecutive weeks of adoption leave. However, the other adoptive parent would be entitled to 10 consecutive days of normal parental leave (see above). It is up to the adoptive parents to decide who takes adoption leave and who takes normal parental leave. From January 2019, working South African men will be entitled to 10 days of paternity leave after the birth of their child. The amendments to the General Conditions of Employment (BCEA), which form the basis of employees` right to parental leave, adoption parental leave and assignment, have been announced. This means that employers are required to grant employees leave under these provisions from 1 January 2020. As with parental leave and adoption leave, the employee is not required to inform the employer of the appointment of parental leave if he or she is unable to do so or if it is not reasonably possible. An employee who is the parent of a child is entitled to 10 consecutive days of parental leave. This is true regardless of gender, meaning it would include parents in same-sex relationships.
Parents should pay attention to comparative advantages, for example for mothers giving birth (maternity leave), a person adopting a child (adoption leave) or a parent sponsoring in a surrogacy arrangement (parental leave) – see below. Under a 2018 amendment to the BCEA, employees are entitled to 10 days of paid paternity leave upon the birth of a child (paid by unemployment insurance). The adoptive parent is also entitled to paternity leave of 10 days from the date on which the adoption order is made or to have a child placed in the care of a prospective adoptive parent by a competent court until an adoption decision concerning that child is final, whichever comes first. As long as the UIF allowance for parental leave is in force, UIF benefits for adoption leave and parental leave come into effect on 1. April 2020. Until then, the employer must pay for the leave or treat it as unpaid leave. The employee must notify the employer in writing, one month before the expected date of birth of the child, of the date on which he intends to begin the parental leave and the date on which he will return to work. The employee can begin ordering parental leave on the day the child is born. First, the amendment to the Labour Act introduced three new types of leave into the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA): parental leave (for fathers); adoption leave; and the allocation of parental leave. An employee wishing to take parental leave must notify his employer in writing at least one calendar month of his intention to start parental leave and the date on which he intends to return to work, which is called a “notification of parental leave”.
LAW FOR ALL has been a strong advocate for amending our laws to provide paternity leave in South Africa and formally issued opinions and opinions to Parliament on the proposed provisions of the LLAB in October 2016. If a surrogacy agreement has two sponsoring parents, the employee may either take parental leave or order parental leave, provided that this choice is exercised at the choice of both sponsoring parents. The ECB has been amended to introduce provisions on parental leave, adoption leave and the granting of parental leave from 1 January 2020. The employee may begin adoption leave on the first day between the date of adoption of the adoption order or the date on which a competent court entrusts the child to the care of an employee who is a potential adoptive parent until an adoption decision relating to the child has been rendered. For some time, Article 27 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (“BCEA”) has granted workers at least four days` leave for family reasons, such as the birth of a child, in certain circumstances. In light of recent amendments to the BCEA, the provision giving an employee the right to leave for family responsibilities upon the birth of his or her child has been repealed (without prejudice to the remainder of section 27). The current ECB provisions on four-month maternity leave remain unchanged (but with increased financial benefits – see below). If you would like to know more about the new parental leave laws in South Africa and how they affect you, please contact us. South Africa`s new parental leave laws came into force on 1 January 2020 and have been welcomed with open arms.
The new legislation means that all parents, including fathers, adoptive parents and surrogates, are entitled to 10 days of unpaid leave upon the birth of their children. On Thursday 26 March 2015, the Durban Labour Court prevented companies from hiding behind their policies on discriminating against same-sex couples. In this groundbreaking case, the National Information Technology Agency denied a senior enterprise architecture specialist of its employee four months of paid “maternity leave” after the birth of her child by a surrogate mother in 2011. The employee, whose identity was withheld from the media, requested maternity leave well before the birth of the child and was eventually granted two months of paid adoption leave and two months of unpaid leave. The agency argued that the Basic Conditions of Employment Act only provides maternity leave benefits for female employees and does not understand how its policies could be discriminatory because labour laws do not specifically address issues relating to surrogate parents.