Tag: Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA)

Uber drivers are currently classified as independent contractors in South Africa, but there are plans to launch a class action to compel Uber SA to confer several key rights on its drivers, which, if successful, will affect the rights of platform workers.

On 8 February 2021 the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thembelani Waltermade Nxesi, published a Government Gazette providing for the increase of the earnings threshold, as provided for in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA). The new earnings threshold will be R211,596.30 per annum with effect of 1 March 2021. 

Not everything you hear about tax is true. There are many myths and misconceptions about payroll tax in South Africa that simply won’t go away. Let’s look at a few of them and what the tax and labour laws actually say. No matter whether your employer calls what it pays you a salary, overtime or commission, it is taxed at the same rate on the payroll according to the standard PAYE tax tables.

If one accepts that innovation is crucial to business sustainability especially in the disruption era in which we live, there appears to be a need to better explain the purpose of intellectual property and how these rights together with workplace policies on performance can assist businesses adapt and compete.

There are regulations and rules that protect both employer and employee when it comes to costs, tools and behaviours, but these are being tested in entirely new ways with the 2020 pandemic. It’s a perfectly legitimate question for any employee to ask for financial support when they’re working from home, using their internet and electricity to do their jobs.

The globe is on lockdown at the moment as we all face the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is a time which is creating a lot of fear, anxiety and uncertainty in the workplace. It is not just with people now having to work from home, but for those who have pursued new job opportunities and received job offers to start during or after lockdown, and now face a highly unnerving state of anxiety about if they will start or not or if their offers will be withdrawn or if they should even hand in their resignations.

Employers and employees have rights when it comes to sick leave, but fraudulent sick notes are a rising problem. In the wake of Jacob Zuma’s alleged medical certificate presented to court in January 2020, there has been widening controversy around these documents and their validity in the South African workplace.

An interview with Johan Olivier, Partner Webber Wentzel, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, discussing employer responsibility with regard to the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace and employees.

The President’s address on the evening of 15 March 2020 sets out a range of measures that have been and will have to be taken in respect of COVID-19. Specifically, under the banner of the Disaster Management Act he proclaimed a national state of disaster (Section 27).

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (BCEA) regulates sick leave entitlement. In terms of section 22 of the BCEA, the 'sick leave cycle' means the period of 36 months’ employment with the same employer immediately following an employee’s commencement of employment.