Leave under South Africa's BCEA minimums
How Achekam keeps a South African employer's annual, sick and family responsibility leave at or above the BCEA minimums, and the leave types it lacks.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
Leave is where employment law meets the spreadsheet. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act sets the minimum leave every South African employee is entitled to, and the employer's records are what prove those minimums were met. When a dispute reaches the CCMA, nobody asks what the policy said; they ask what the leave record shows.
For a small business, leave records are often a mix of a calendar, a manager's memory and a column on a payroll spreadsheet. This article explains how Achekam's payroll keeps leave instead, where the BCEA fits in, and the gaps you still need to manage yourself.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act minimums as a floor
The BCEA sets minimum entitlements for annual leave, sick leave and family responsibility leave, each with its own rules about how leave builds up and when it may be taken. An employment contract can be more generous than the Act, but not less.
Achekam uses the BCEA minimums as a floor. The built-in entitlements start from those minimums, so a new employee set up without any special terms is not given less than the Act allows. You do not have to look up and type in the statutory figures yourself, which removes one common source of error: the spreadsheet that was copied from somewhere else and never checked.
The Department of Employment and Labour's basic guide to annual leave explains the BCEA minimum for annual leave, when leave must be granted and when it may be paid out. It is worth reading before you set your own policy, so you know exactly what the floor is.
Raising entitlements above the floor
Many employers give more than the minimum: extra annual leave for long service, additional family responsibility days, or a more generous sick leave arrangement for senior staff.
Achekam lets the employer raise entitlements above the BCEA floor. What it will not do is let them fall below it. That is the right way round. A business that wants to reward long service can do so on the leave record itself, instead of through side agreements that payroll never hears about.
When you raise an entitlement, make sure the contract or policy says the same thing. The leave ledger shows what you granted; the contract shows what you promised. Ideally they agree.
Monthly accrual and the leave ledger
Payroll keeps annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave. Leave accrues monthly, and Achekam holds it as a ledger: accruals in, days taken out, and a running balance for each employee and each type.
A ledger is more useful than a single balance figure because it explains itself. When an employee disputes their balance, you can show each month's accrual and each period of leave taken, with dates. When someone leaves and accrued leave must be settled, the balance on their last day is already there.
Encourage staff to look at their own balance. A staff member whose login is linked to their payroll record can apply for leave from self-service and download their own payslips. How that works for a busy clinic is described in staff leave self-service in healthcare.
Unpaid leave: payroll is warned and decides
Unpaid leave is kept in the ledger like any other type, but recording it does not reduce pay automatically. Instead, payroll is warned and decides.
That design is deliberate. Unpaid leave can be complicated: an employee who has exhausted sick leave, a period of absence still under discussion, a day taken unpaid by agreement but to be made up later. A person looks at each case and, where pay is to be reduced, enters it as a variable input on the pay run along with the period's overtime, allowances and other changes.
The risk is the opposite one: payroll ignores the warning and pays in full for unpaid days. Make "check unpaid leave warnings" a fixed step before every run is sent for approval.
Maternity, parental and study leave not yet available
There is no maternity, parental or study leave type in Achekam, and new leave types cannot be added. Employers still have to grant these where the law or the contract requires them; Achekam simply does not track them yet.
Until it does:
- keep a separate record of each such absence, with the dates, the type of leave and the documents supporting it;
- do not record it as annual or sick leave to get it into the system, because that would reduce balances the employee is still entitled to;
- decide the pay treatment for each absence and enter any change to pay as a variable input on the run;
- tell your accountant, so the year-end records reflect what was paid.
Approvals: never your own
In Achekam, a line manager approves leave for their own team, and nobody approves their own leave. A manager's leave goes to someone else.
In a small business, that rule can feel awkward: the owner may be the only person senior enough to approve anyone. But it is the same principle as two people on every pay run. One person asking and another approving is what makes the leave ledger believable to an auditor, a labour inspector or a court.
A short policy check
- Does every employee have at least the BCEA minimums in Achekam?
- Are any above-minimum entitlements matched by the contract?
- Is unpaid leave reviewed before each pay run?
- Is there a separate record for maternity, parental and study leave?
- Does every manager have someone else to approve their leave?
Leave balances matter most on an employee's last day, which is covered in paying a South African employee who leaves. Run through the five questions this month, and fix the answer that comes back "no".
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
