Pregnant staff at a practice: safe duties and leave

What a South African clinic or pharmacy owes a pregnant employee, from safe duties to maternity leave, and how payroll and her UIF claim are handled.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Healthcare businesses in South Africa

Your practice nurse tells you she is pregnant. Or your pharmacist's assistant, or the radiographer, or the receptionist who has run the front desk for years. After the congratulations, the practice manager has a list of practical questions: which of her duties are still safe, when her leave starts, how long it lasts, what payroll does in the meantime, and how she claims from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

A healthcare setting makes the first question more serious than in most workplaces. Clinics and pharmacies handle medicines, infections, radiation and long hours on foot. Getting the answers right protects her, her baby and the practice.

Duties that may no longer be safe

The Department of Employment and Labour's basic guide to maternity leave says a worker who is pregnant or nursing may not do work that is unsafe for her or her child. The guide links this to section 26 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

In a practice, that means looking at her actual tasks, with her, as soon as she tells you. Depending on the role, the questions might include:

• Is she exposed to X-rays or other radiation in the course of her work?
• Does she prepare or handle medicines that carry warnings for pregnant women?
• Is she in contact with patients who may have infectious illnesses?
• Does the job involve heavy lifting, such as moving patients or stock?
• Is she on her feet for very long shifts, or working nights?

Where a task is unsafe, adjust it: move it to a colleague, change her duties or her hours. Agree the change in writing, and review it as the pregnancy progresses and again if she breastfeeds after returning. Her doctor or midwife can help you judge what is safe in her case.

How long maternity leave is, and when it starts

The same guide says pregnant workers are entitled to at least four consecutive months of maternity leave, which may start one month before the expected date of birth, or earlier or later as agreed or where medically required. It also says a worker may not return to work within six weeks after giving birth unless her doctor or midwife says it is safe. You can read the guide on the Department's basic guide to maternity leave page.

The Department's guide was last modified in 2014, so later changes to the law may not be reflected in it. Before you confirm her dates in writing, check the current position with the Department or a labour law adviser, particularly for any parental leave the other parent may take.

For planning, agree three dates with her early: when she expects to start leave, the expected date of birth, and the expected return date. Locums or temporary staff for a clinical role take time to arrange, so the earlier the practice knows, the better.

Her UIF maternity benefit

The Department's guide to the Unemployment Insurance Fund says the UIF pays five kinds of benefit: unemployment, illness, maternity, adoption and dependants' benefits. It says maternity benefit applications can be submitted within six months after the birth, and the employer's UI-19 declaration is needed to support each claim.

The claim is hers to make, but she cannot complete it without the practice's paperwork. Give her what the Fund asks for promptly, and make sure her UIF contributions have been declared every month, so that her record is complete when the Fund checks it.

Recording maternity leave in Achekam payroll

Achekam's payroll keeps annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave, with monthly accrual. A line manager approves their own team's leave, and nobody approves their own. There is no maternity, parental or study leave type, and new leave types cannot be added, so maternity leave needs a deliberate approach:

• Do not book it as annual or sick leave. That would use up entitlements she keeps.
• Record the absence as unpaid leave, if she is not being paid by the practice during that time, and keep a note on her file of the maternity leave dates. Whether the practice pays anything during her leave depends on her contract and your policy.
• Remember that unpaid leave does not cut pay automatically. Payroll is warned and decides, so the person running payroll must adjust her pay for each period she is away. Unpaid leave is entered as a variable input for the period, alongside overtime, allowances and other changes.

For the UIF side, Achekam prepares the monthly UIF declaration from payroll, as well as the UI-19 for an employee who leaves and the COIDA Return of Earnings, and a person files them and records the reference. The Department of Labour's E03 electronic file is not produced. The UI-19 that Achekam prepares is the one for a leaver; for her maternity claim, complete the declaration the Fund requires using her payroll history.

A checklist from announcement to return

Plan before the leave starts

Sit down with her within days of the news, review her duties, and agree dates and pay in writing. For how payroll handles the months she is away in another profession, see maternity leave in a law firm's payroll, and for how staff apply for leave themselves, staff leave self-service at a practice.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.