Six things you NEED to know about family responsibility leave

Quite often, situations will arise in your workplace where your employees will request family responsibility leave, for instance when someone in their family has died or one of their children is ill.

It's crucial that you know how to handle matters around family responsibly leave and act according to what the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) says you must do.

Here's what the BCEA says about family responsibility leave

#1: The BCEA doesn't refer to in-laws under family responsibility leave. You'll have to decide as an employer whether or not to grant this leave if one of your employee's in-laws dies, says the Labour Law for Managers Loose Leaf Service.

Just be consistent in how you treat your employees.

#2: Your employee can't claim family responsibility leave if her child minder is sick.

#3: Any unused family responsibility leave lapses if it isn't used in the current leave cycle.

This means you employee can't accumulate family responsibility leave and claim 20 days' family responsibility leave in one year.

#4: You only have to grant family responsibility leave to employees who work for you for at least four days a week.

#5: If you grant your employee family responsibility leave, you must pay your employee:

• The wage he would ordinarily have received for work on that day
• On his usual pay day.

#6: Your employees are entitled to at least three days' family responsibility leave per leave cycle. BUT you're allowed to grant your employees more than these three days, either at your discretion, or in terms of what you've provided for in your employment contract, policies or in a collective agreement that applies to your business.

Now that you know these six important facts about family responsibility leave, make sure you comply with the BCEA.