Sick leave and when to ask for a medical note
How much paid sick leave a South African worker gets, the rule for new staff, and when an employer may ask for a medical certificate before paying.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
A staff member phones in sick on a Monday. By Wednesday they are still off, and the question lands on whoever runs payroll: do we pay these days, and can we ask for a doctor's note first? Get it wrong one way and you pay for absences you could have questioned. Get it wrong the other way and you withhold pay a worker was entitled to.
South Africa's Basic Conditions of Employment Act answers most of this, and the Department of Employment and Labour's basic guide to sick leave sets it out in plain terms. This article explains how much paid sick leave a worker gets, the different rule for new staff, when a medical certificate may be required, and how to keep the record straight.
Who the rules cover
The department's guide to pay slips says the Act applies to all employers and workers except members of the National Defence Force, the National Intelligence Agency and the South African Secret Service, and unpaid volunteers working for charity. For an ordinary business, that means every employee, full-time or part-time, falls under the sick leave rules described below.
The department's guide pages were last modified in 2012. They are the department's own summary of the Act, so treat them as a reliable starting point, and turn to the Act itself if a case becomes contentious.
Sick leave runs in three-year cycles
The guide says workers may take, on full pay, the number of days they would normally work in a 6-week period as sick leave in each 3-year period.
Two things follow from that wording.
First, the entitlement is measured in the worker's own working days. Someone on a five-day week gets six weeks' worth of five-day weeks; someone on a six-day week gets six weeks' worth of six-day weeks. There is no single number of days that fits every employee, which is why each person's normal working pattern needs to be on record.
Second, the entitlement belongs to a cycle, not to a calendar year. A worker who is ill for a long stretch in the first year may use most of the cycle's leave early, leaving little for the next two years. Sick leave does not reset on 1 January or at your financial year end.
The first six months are different
A new employee does not start with the full cycle. According to the guide, in the first 6 months of employment a worker is entitled to only 1 day of paid sick leave for every 26 days worked.
So a new hire who falls ill in their second week has earned very little paid sick leave yet. If they are off longer than they have earned, the days beyond that are not paid sick leave under the Act, although you may choose to be more generous. Whatever you decide, decide it the same way for everyone, and write it down.
When you may ask for a medical certificate
This is the question behind most sick-leave disputes. The guide says an employer may require a medical certificate before paying a worker who is absent for more than 2 consecutive days, or more than twice in an 8-week period.
Put as a working rule:
| Situation | May you require a certificate before paying? |
|---|---|
| Off one or two consecutive days, first or second absence in eight weeks | The guide gives no such right |
| Off for more than two consecutive days | Yes |
| A third separate absence within an eight-week period | Yes |
Notice the words "before paying". The certificate is a condition of payment for those absences, not a punishment. Tell staff in advance, in their contract or a written policy, that you will ask for one in these situations, so nobody is surprised on the third day.
The department's basic guide to sick leave sets out the cycle, the first-six-months rule and the medical certificate conditions in the department's own words.
Applying for and approving sick leave in Achekam
Achekam keeps leave as a ledger of accruals and days taken, and uses the Basic Conditions of Employment Act minimums as a floor that your business may raise but not lower. Its payroll keeps annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave with monthly accrual.
Day to day, it works like this:
- The worker applies. A staff member whose login is linked to their payroll record can apply for leave themselves, download their own payslips and submit expense claims or changes to their details for payroll to decide.
- The line manager approves. A line manager approves their own team's leave, and nobody approves their own. A manager who is off sick cannot sign off their own sick days.
- Unpaid days are a payroll decision. Unpaid leave does not cut pay automatically. Payroll is warned and decides, which is the right place for the judgement about whether an absence without a requested certificate should be paid.
The general leave minimums, including annual and family responsibility leave, are covered in leave minimums under the BCEA.
Keeping the certificate with the record
A certificate only helps if you can find it later. When a manager approves sick leave that needed a certificate, the certificate should be kept in the employee's file with a note of the dates it covers, so that anyone checking the leave balance can see why those days were paid.
A short routine for whoever runs payroll:
- On the third consecutive day, or a third absence in eight weeks, ask for the certificate.
- Approve the sick leave once the certificate is in hand, or refer the absence to payroll if it is not.
- File the certificate with the dates it covers.
- At each month end, glance at anyone whose cycle balance is running low, and talk to them before it runs out.
Before the next sick note arrives
Write a one-page sick leave policy that repeats the Act's cycle, the first-six-months rule and the two certificate triggers, and give it to every employee. Keep each person's normal working pattern on record, because the entitlement depends on it. For staff who would rather be paid out than take leave, the separate rules on annual leave are covered in paying out annual leave instead of granting it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
