{"id":875632,"date":"2026-09-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=875632"},"modified":"2026-09-18T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:24:58","slug":"warning-for-anyone-starting-a-new-job-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/875632\/warning-for-anyone-starting-a-new-job-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning for anyone starting a new job in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has several laws protecting employees’ sick leave rights, but the rules differ for the first six months of employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Conversations podcast, employment law associate Chantell De Gouveia explained a common misconception about leave for new employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She started by clarifying the legal framework for sick leave in South Africa, which is governed by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The act outlines that employees are entitled to between 30 and 36 days of sick leave in every three-year cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Gouveia explained that a common misconception in South Africa is that people are entitled to 36 days of sick leave annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sick leave operates on a 36-month cycle. That is a three-year cycle, not an annual cycle,” she said. “The common misconception that employees receive 36 days every year is not correct.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The entitlement is the number of days the employee would normally work during six weeks, a 30-day period for an employee working a five-day week, or 36 days for an employee working a six-day week over a three-year cycle.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the sick leave cycle set out in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act may seem like a blanket policy, the rules differ for new hires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first six months of employment, a person must follow a different leave cycle before the three-year cycle takes effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For the first six months of employment, an employee’s entitlement is limited to one day of paid sick leave for every 26 days worked,” De Gouveia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Once that initial period has passed, the rest of the entitlement for the 36-day cycle becomes available, and in the first cycle, the employer may deduct the days already taken in the first six months.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that South Africans starting new jobs need to be aware that they do not have access to the full 36 days of leave at the start of their employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, new hires are entitled to approximately six days of sick leave for the first half of the year after they start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The first six months rule trips people up constantly,” De Gouveia said. “The new employees think that they’re covered from day one, and employers sometimes forget to apply it correctly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strict rules for more than just new hires<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the different rules for new employees in South Africa, there are several reasons an employer would not be obliged to pay for a person’s sick leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes if an employee has been absent for more than two days in a row, or was absent on more than two occasions in an eight-week period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A company also does not have to remunerate an employee for sick leave if they cannot produce a doctor’s note when asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Gouveia explained that some businesses go a step further and require a medical certificate whenever an employee is absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are several instances where a business can withhold sick pay, missing one day due to illness is not one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Withholding pay for a single uncertified day outside section 23 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act triggers and therefore is open to challenge,” De Gouveia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also emphasised that sick leave and annual leave are separate and should not be confused with one another or swapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sick leave is entirely separate from annual leave,” she said. “An employer may not substitute one for the other.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An unused sick leave does not pay out on termination. It simply lapses at the end of a cycle.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are several misconceptions about South Africa’s sick leave rules, especially those for new hires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":830432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2101582337079116226","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2210884576398608","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18126054178855178","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26528,26527,1523,16628],"class_list":["post-875632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-basic-conditions-of-employment-act","tag-chantell-de-gouveia","tag-cliffe-dekker-hofmeyr","tag-sick-leave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875632"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876266,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875632\/revisions\/876266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}