Sage Pastel Leave Policy

Transcription

1 Sage Pastel Leave Policy Department All Subject Leave Policy Process Designer Sage Pastel Process Owner Lindi Dickinson Design Date 1 September 2012 Last Revision Date Approved By Effective Date 1 September September 2012 PURPOSE This document sets out to detail the leave policy for all Sage Pastel employees. Areas that are covered include: Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Religious Leave, Maternity Leave, Sick Leave and Family Responsibility Leave. POLICY Annual Leave Public Holidays: Below is a list of the official public holidays, to which all employees are entitled. In terms of section 2(1) of the Public Holidays Act of 1994, any public holiday falling on a Sunday will result in the following Monday being a paid public holiday. This does not apply to a public holiday falling on a Saturday. New Year s Day - 1 January Human Rights Day - 21 March Good Friday - Friday before Easter Sunday Family Day - Monday after Easter Sunday Freedom Day - 27 April Worker s Day - 1 May Youth Day - 16 June National Women's Day - 9 August Heritage Day - 24 September Day of Reconciliation - 16 December Christmas Day - 25 December Day of Goodwill - 26 December Application for Leave: Leave must be applied for in advance, with sufficient notice allowing the manager to make contingency plans for the duration of an employee's period of leave. If leave is not applied for in advance due to unforeseen circumstances, a leave form must be completed by you and signed by your manager on your return to work. Your annual leave entitlement will be stated in your letter of employment. Annual leave may be taken on a pro-rata basis after the first three months service. Annual leave must be applied for, in writing, with your immediate manager. Your annual leave entitlement will increase by 1 day per year of service, up to a maximum of 20 days leave per annum. Pastel does not close during the Christmas period but does work on skeleton staff as this is not a very busy time of the year. You may therefore be asked to take your leave between this time with the exception of employees who form part of a skeleton staff team over this period, or required to meet deadlines during this time. Accumulated Leave No member of staff may carry over more than 25% of their annual leave entitlement, to the following year. Any accumulated leave in excess of 25% of the annual allocation will be forfeited. An exception to this would apply in the instance of the company denying an application for leave due to operational requirements. In this case the company would

2 authorise the carry-over of the excess leave, to be taken during the course of the following year. No accumulated leave may be paid out other than on termination of employment. Religious Leave Any member of staff who is observant in their respective faith is entitled to an additional three days religious leave per annum. Religious leave that is required over and above these three days is deducted from the annual leave entitlement. Religious leave must be applied for in advance, in writing with the immediate manager. Sick Leave The Basic Conditions of Employment Act will be used as the basis for sick leave along with company specific requirements: Sick leave consists of 30 days per 3-year cycle. During the first 6 months of employment, the entitlement is 5 days sick leave, with 25 days during the balance of the three-year cycle. An employee is required to produce a doctor's certificate if absent from work on a Monday or a Friday, the day before or after a public holiday, if absent for a period of more than 2 consecutive days, when scheduled to work on a Saturday or if absent on more than two occasions during an eight week period. Irrespective of the length of absence, on the employee's return to work, a sick leave form must be completed and forwarded together with the doctor's certificate (where necessary) to the personnel administrator. If an employee is not attending work on a given day, they are required to phone in before 8h30 to notify their direct manager of their absence. The employee is to notify the office daily of their absence and the progress of their recovery. If the employee fails to inform the company of their absence the manager will need to institute disciplinary action. The notification must be in the form of telephonic contact with the relevant manager. A text, facsimile or is not acceptable notification. Study Leave Study leave for examination purposes will be granted on all approved courses based on the following formula: two (2) days per subject limited to eight (8) days per annum. Should the employee leave the company within six months of the last examination date, the total study leave taken will be deducted from the employee's annual leave accrued. If no leave is accrued at that date, the leave will be deducted as "Unpaid Leave" from the employee's final salary. Even if the employee does not apply for financial assistance, the Study Loan Agreement must still be completed in order to qualify for study leave. If the employee does not complete the Study Loan Agreement, leave will be taken as annual leave. Family Responsibility Leave Three days paid family responsibility leave is granted to employees during each annual leave cycle. The leave may be taken as a whole or part of a working day. The employee may be required to provide reasonable proof of the reason for which the leave is being taken, prior to the company approving it as paid leave. An employee is entitled to take family responsibility leave in the following instances: Paternity leave To nurse a sick child

3 The death of the employee's spouse or life partner, parent or adoptive parent, grandparent, child or adopted child, grandchild or sibling. It will be at a director's discretion to increase the leave granted depending on the circumstances surrounding the leave application. Maternity Leave Policy All employees are entitled to maternity leave as per the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Legislation requires that full time members of staff contribute towards the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) on a monthly basis. This contribution entitles members of staff to claim various benefits under different circumstances, one of those circumstances being when a member of staff takes maternity leave. The maternity leave policy for Sage Pastel is as follows: Female employees with less than 12 months continuous service will be entitled to take four months unpaid maternity leave. However should they reach the 12 month service mark whilst on maternity leave then the maternity leave pay becomes effective. For example if someone has been employed for 10 months and goes on maternity leave, the first 2 months of their maternity leave would be unpaid and they would be eligible to receive maternity benefits from the third month of their maternity leave Members of staff with 12 or more month s continuous service will be entitled to four months partially paid maternity leave. On return to work, the employee is guaranteed either the same or a similar position to that she occupied prior to maternity leave. An employee who has a miscarriage during the third trimester of pregnancy or bears a stillborn child is entitled to maternity leave for six weeks after the miscarriage or stillbirth, whether or not the employee had commenced maternity leave at the time of the miscarriage or stillbirth. The terms as stated above will apply. Adoption/Surrogacy Leave Maximum periods of 60 consecutive calendar day s adoption leave is granted to an employee on the occasion of the adoption of a child in terms of an adoption order issued by the children s court. The remuneration received with been governed by the same rules as ordinary maternity leave. Adoption leave is granted only in respect of adoption of children up to the age of 2 years. A copy of the order issued by the children s court and the child s birth certificate shall be provided to the company. In the event that both adoptive parents work for the company only one parent may utilise the leave days provided in above. The granting of maternity leave as per the clause above is only allowed on one occasion within a leave cycle. An employee returning from adoption leave will be re-instated in the former position or in a similar position on the same level at her former salary provided that any structural increases which were granted during her absence shall be applicable

4 to her. The provisions of this section are not applicable to foster parents. Maternity leave pay will be calculated at 60% of the employee s monthly package including incentive bonuses and commissions. The amount of incentive bonuses and commissions included in the maternity leave pay calculation will be based on the average incentive and commissions received in the 12 months preceding the maternity leave. The value of maternity leave pay paid, is not subject to any limit. The maternity leave pay will be paid to the staff member independently of any amounts the employee may receive from the UIF. It is the responsibility of the member of staff to claim any UIF benefits they may be entitled to claim during their maternity leave. If an employee goes on maternity leave within 12 months of the end of a previous period of maternity leave, the employee will only be entitled to unpaid maternity leave. There is no limit as to the number of times an employee may take paid maternity leave (subject to the provisions of this policy). The employee will be required to sign a service contract of one year from the date of return to duty. If this contract is broken, for any reason whatsoever, the employee will be required to pay back the maternity pay on a pro-rata basis e.g. if an employee works for only six months after returning from maternity leave and then resigns, the employee will be required to pay back to Sage Pastel 6/12 of the maternity pay they received whilst on maternity leave. Annual leave will be accrued during the four months of maternity leave. The employee may extend maternity leave beyond four months. This however is at the discretion of a director and subject to the employee having sufficient accrued annual leave due to them at the time of taking the extended leave. In instances where the employer agrees to extend the maternity leave beyond four months, the employer does not guarantee that the employee will return to the same position as they held prior to maternity leave. The employee will be entitled to continue to contribute towards the cost of group s benefits during their maternity leave subject to the following: Any medical aid contributions due during the maternity leave will be required to be paid in full. Should the employee not be in a position to pay the medical aid contributions during their maternity leave, they will be required to make arrangements with the salaries department to deduct additional amounts from their salary prior to taking maternity leave, to cover the cost of these contributions during the period of their maternity leave. An employee who is a member of the Sage provident fund will have the option of suspending their contributions to the provident fund during their maternity leave. It is the responsibility of the employee to advise the payroll department of their decision in this regard. The company will continue to pay towards the cost of the insured benefits provided by the provident fund, whilst an employee is on maternity leave. Unless specifically agreed with the employer, an employee will not be entitled to receive incentives and bonuses during their maternity leave. The calculation of maternity leave pay, for those members of staff who are entitled to partially paid maternity leave, already includes a value for incentive bonuses and commissions. Any salary reviews that take place during an employee s maternity leave will only be effective from the date they return to active duty. In the unfortunate circumstances of a miscarriage or still born birth, the maternity policy will apply for duration of time as reasonably agreed between the employee and employer. Procedure: Inform your direct manager of your pregnancy as soon as possible, so as to enable them to do the necessary planning with regard to work distribution, etc. The following issues must be clarified: Decide on your last working day. The salary administrator will be available to explain how UIF is claimed. UIF requires copies of the last six months payslips prior to maternity leave please keep your payslip for this purpose. It is the employee s responsibility to claim UIF.

5 Complete the Leave Application Form. The date you expect to resume work must also be noted on the form. Obtain the UIF Form from the Unemployment Insurance Fund and hand it to the salary administrator to complete. The salary administrator usually has copies of all the necessary forms but confirm in advance if you require additional forms. It is compulsory to obtain a doctors certificate to declare that you are fit to work should you wish to work after the 36th week of pregnancy. The same principle applies should you wish to return to work before six weeks after your baby is born. It is the employee s responsibility to complete the form to register the new-born baby. If the employee is on Discovery s medical aid, forward the completed form to the salary administrator. The form will be verified and submitted to Discovery. On your last working day you will be handed the following: Your completed UIF Form. Your pro rata salary and commission earned up to that date (if applicable).