Tag: employment contract

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) is a crucial statute for organisations to get right. Not only because the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is all about data and information but also because a breach of the POPI Act could result in imprisonment and fines.

As with any change in life, the longer it persists, the more we relax into it in order to find some sense of normalcy to continue with our lives. But relaxing into COVID-19 and becoming blasé about protocol is simply not an option until we have achieved immunity as a nation.

In the age of pandemics and other socio-economic upheavals, relying on a single income may prove risky, especially as joblessness continues to rise, with Statistics South Africa reporting an unemployment rate of 32.5%, the highest it has been since the survey was initiated in 2008.

In the 2021 Budget, there are proposals to halt abuse of employment tax incentives and expand the scope of what constitutes a long-service award. The 2021 Budget Review contained several proposals in relation to individuals, employment tax and associated benefits and incentives.

We have been consistent in saying that labour laws and the National Minimum Wage (NMW) are not benefitting the unemployed. In fact, they do the exact opposite. Parliament, as the institution that makes the laws, is failing the unemployed as it is the responsible body that brings out laws and regulations that cause an increase in unemployment.

A common occurrence in the employment relationship is for an employee to resign in the face of disciplinary action by an employer, and South African courts have previously accepted that as long as an employee resigns with immediate effect, the employer has no power to compel the former employer to go through any disciplinary process.  

As the year quickly draws to a close, we have been inundated with queries regarding their expected annual bonuses in December. Many of the enquiries stem from employees who don’t know if their bonus constitutes a thirteenth cheque or a performance bonus.

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.

An employer cannot unilaterally change an employee’s retirement age. Should the employer do so and terminate the employee’s employment, the dismissal may constitute an automatically unfair dismissal and amount to unfair discrimination.

The Labour Court in a recent judgment, Mthobisi Mthimkhulu v Standard Bank of South Africa (J928/20) (18 September 2020) considered whether an employee who has been found guilty of serious misconduct can avoid the ultimate sanction of dismissal by resigning before the employer imposes the sanction.