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IOL News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
South Africa's municipal workers gain surrogacy leave rights
The SA Local Government Bargaining Council has amended its leave collective agreement, to pave the way for three months' paid surrogacy leave following an out-of-court settlement. Image: File Municipal workers in surrogacy arrangements are now entitled to three months' paid leave, like biological and adoptive mothers, following an agreement reached at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC). Parties to the SALGBC – the SA Local Government Association, SA Municipal Workers' Union, and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) – concluded the agreement providing for parents in surrogacy arrangements. In terms of the agreement, parents in surrogacy arrangements will be entitled to the same leave as biological and adoptive parents. According to the bargaining council, the agreement will be applicable retrospectively from October 2023, when the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, Deputy Judge President Roland Sutherland declared invalid some provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and corresponding provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Fund Act. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ The judge found parts of both acts invalid because of inconsistency with the Constitution to the extent that the provisions unfairly discriminated between mothers and fathers, and between one set of parents and another based on whether their children were born of the mother, were conceived by surrogacy, or were adopted. Judge Sutherland also ruled that any employee who is a commissioning parent in a surrogate motherhood agreement is entitled to leave. Earlier this month, the SALGBC advised municipalities to take all necessary steps to give effect to the amendment and display the circular sent by the bargaining council general secretary, Bill Govender. The agreement on maternity, adoption, and surrogacy leave states that employees adopting a child under three months as well as those who are commissioning parents in surrogacy motherhood arrangements are entitled to three months paid maternity, adoption, or surrogacy leave with no limit to the number of confinements, adoptions, or surrogacy confinements. 'This leave provision shall also apply to an employee whose child is stillborn. Maternity, adoption, or surrogacy leave may commence four weeks before confinement,' reads the agreement. Imatu, which represents over 110,000 employees in the local government sector, described the fully paid surrogacy leave as a groundbreaking victory for women's rights. The union said this breakthrough recognised the evolving nature of parenthood and affirms the principle of equality in the workplace, regardless of the path to motherhood. Imatu initiated two separate urgent Labour Court applications involving its members who were commissioning mothers in surrogacy arrangements.
IOL News
21-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Labour Court rules in favour of pregnant employee in discrimination case against paint company
The Labour Court has determined that a paint company, which placed a pregnant worker on early pregnancy leave as she could no longer work among the paint chemicals, and it had no other work for her, discriminated against her. Image: File A paint company, which was found to have discriminated against a pregnant employee who worked for it by placing her on unpaid maternity leave months before she was due to go on leave, was ordered to pay her 11 months' back pay. Daisy Moleme turned to the Durban Labour Court, where she sued her now former employer under the Employment Equity Act and the non-compliance with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Moleme was employed by Induradec Coatings as a chemist, and her duties included aspects of both research relating to, as well as the development of products for the employer, a chemical coating company. Having fallen pregnant some 12 weeks earlier, Moleme notified her employer of her pregnancy in March 2023. She was concerned about continuing to work in the laboratory, which would expose her to certain chemicals. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading She requested to be moved out of that environment, and she was moved to another office, but for two months, she was assigned no duties. This was after her manager had agreed that she would be provided with a computer to enable her to carry out such limited functions as she was able to while she was away from the laboratory. The company, meanwhile, tried to obtain professional guidance as to how to handle Moleme's situation, as the paint company uses a variety of raw materials in the chemical makeup of its products, and it feared that this could affect the unborn baby. All safety data sheets were available, but the literature does not specify pregnant persons; it said. In May 2023, the company told Moleme that she was placed on early maternity leave without pay, as it was unable to use her. She was also told by her manager that the company was 'not getting value for money' at that stage, as she had fallen pregnant. The court acknowledged that the company did obtain expert opinions on how to handle Moleme's situation. It was advised to accommodate her elsewhere in the company, but it did not do so. It also accepted that by placing her on unpaid maternity leave, the decision was not made with deliberate intent to discriminate against her on account of her pregnancy. But, the court said, the failure to utilise her services outside of the laboratory evinced complete indifference not only to its legal obligations but also to the negative consequences which would inevitably and foreseeably befall the applicant by being deprived of the ability to earn her salary. 'It can further not be doubted that whilst on maternity leave, whether paid or not, pregnant employees by virtue of their absence from the workplace in certain instances invariably lose out on advantages of being at the workplace, such as bonuses, promotions, and career development in the form of training and development offered to other employees,' the court stated. It concluded that pregnant women continue to worry about the prospects of their continued employment once they disclose their pregnancy or even after childbirth. In the case of the applicant, the invariable consequences of pregnancy were exacerbated by how the company treated her, the court stated.
Daily Maverick
11-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Changes to overtime pay causes Gauteng state doctors to gear up for health department fight
Trade unions, medical associations and universities are raising the alarm that Gauteng budget cuts at the cost of doctors' take-home pay will have dire consequences for public sector health. Meanwhile, the National Minister of Health has convened a committee to review the future of overtime for state doctors. Dysfunction in the Gauteng Department of Health hit home hard for many public sector doctors on 29 April when their overtime payments due for the month went unpaid. The non-payment came without notice and affected medical staff in facilities across the province, according to the South African Medical Association (SAMA). Only by Tuesday, 6 May did some doctors start to see payments reflect in their bank accounts. More payments are expected soon, given that, according to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the employer has seven days to settle, said SAMA. As a fixed amount, commuted overtime is predictable supplemental income and for many doctors, it amounts to about a third of their take-home pay. But tensions are rising as this payment blunder follows a protracted row over the department's unilateral decision to cut and change the terms of commuted overtime in the province. Proposals to cut down on commuted overtime come in the light of a very tight provincial health budget. As with most other provincial health departments, Gauteng's health budget has been shrinking in real terms for several years. Threats of protests and legal action The delayed payments and the ongoing review of cuts and changes to commuted overtime pay has led to threats of protests and legal action. SAMA says they will make civil claims for salaries owed, including for interest and legal costs. Registrars and medical officers at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa collectively wrote to the hospital giving notice of withdrawal of overtime services until the non-payment issue is completely resolved. By 7 May, the head of anaesthesiology at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University wrote to the CEO of George Mukhari, informing him that no anaesthesia services would take place at the hospital starting Thursday, 8 May, given the decision by registrars and medical officers to down tools outside of regular work hours. Those that Spotlight spoke to from the medical fraternity have set out a series of concerns. These include resignations; an exodus of doctors, especially specialists from the public sector; plummeting staff morale; negative impacts on the training of doctors as fewer consultants and seniors are available to supervise — which then puts universities' training accreditations at risk. Ultimately, several sources point out, it is the services offered to the public that suffer. Committee appointed By the beginning of April, there appeared to be some walking back by the Gauteng health department of its unilateral cutback proposals after meeting with the South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU). In the same week, a circular was issued announcing that the national health department was conducting a review of its own, instructing provinces to hold off on their plans. Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi then set up a committee of experts to review certain human resource policies in the public healthcare sector. This includes a review of community service, commuted overtime, remunerative work outside the public service for health professionals, and rural and related allowances. Commuted overtime is a pre-determined amount of overtime that doctors employed by provincial health departments are allowed to work. The amount is historically decided by hospital management and is based on an employee's role, seniority, the department they work in and the amount of overtime they are allowed to safely work. It's a fixed rate of 1.3 times the applicable hourly tariff for a specific work grade. There are five contract options. A is no overtime worked; B is overtime of between four and eight hours a week; C is overtime between nine and 12 hours a week; D is overtime between 13 and 20 hours per week; and an option E is where, on approval, a doctor can be authorised to work more than 20 hours of overtime a week. As a fixed amount, commuted overtime is predictable supplemental income and for many doctors, it amounts to about a third of their take-home pay. The long rumblings to cut their overtime pay has seen doctors being required to motivate why they should remain on contracts that pay for more overtime hours, and junior doctors say they are being pressured to sign option C contracts, which will pay for fewer overtime hours. There are also proposals to change some of the terms relating to overtime, including scrapping overtime payments for doctors who are on call but not physically present at a facility. Many doctors already exceed the maximum hours of their contracts because of the emergency nature of their work, gross understaffing and backlogs at their hospitals. Costly, but essential? The commuted overtime pay model has been contentious for years because it adds up to a sizable chunk of the healthcare budget. According to a spending review conducted in 2022 on behalf of National Treasury, the country's health departments spent R6.9-billion on commuted overtime in 2021. This made up about 70% of the total R9.9-billion spent on all types of overtime. In an editorial published in the South African Medical Journal in April 2025, health sciences academics, associations, and unions slammed the Gauteng health department's handling of pay issues. They argue that the basic salaries of medical professionals in the public health sector are already much lower than what would be considered fair pay. 'COT [commuted overtime] has long served as a critical mechanism to ensure that doctors are available beyond the standard workday, safeguarding round-the-clock care in the public health system… The abrupt curtailment of this framework risks hollowing out the after-hours safety net, leaving emergency rooms, wards and clinics dangerously under-resourced,' they wrote. A co-author of the editorial, SAMA CEO Dr Mzulungile Nodikida, told Spotlight: 'Medical doctors in South Africa's public sector are severely underpaid. A study by SAMA has shown that even the annual cost of living adjustments that have been made on the salaries have not matched inflation in the last five years. Commuted overtime has had the effect of masking a deficient salary.' He said the Gauteng health department has shown itself to be an 'unreliable employer', adding that its relationship with doctors remains fractured as a loss of confidence in the department deepens. 'This breach of the most basic employment obligation: timely remuneration, has cascading effects. It jeopardises morale, compromises service delivery, and calls into question the department's commitment to its workforce. Doctors now operate under a cloud of uncertainty, unsure whether they will receive their salaries at month-end. This anxiety permeates every aspect of the employment relationship, from retention efforts to the willingness to engage in additional responsibilities,' said Nodikida. View from the wards Two doctors who spoke to Spotlight independently, from two different Gauteng hospitals, say the commuted overtime pay disaster is yet another symptom of weak human resources and poor management from the department of health. For them, proposals to cut commuted overtime is the department shirking from addressing the staffing crisis; the need to improve human resources systems; and rooting out corruption, maladministration and wasteful expenditure. Both doctors asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. Dr A, who is based at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, said: 'Instead of having a system in place to record how many hours each doctor is actually working and what overtime that person should be paid, the department pays everyone this commuted overtime fixed sum…. [Y]ou could be a dermatologist or a psychologist and have very few overtime hours, or be a surgeon who is doing a lot of overtime. But you all get paid the same if you're on the same contract option,' she said. 'Right now, in my career, I'm working way more overtime hours than my contract, and I'm not being reimbursed for any of it.' Dr A said the overtime pay cuts and proposed changes will impact her decision to stay in the public sector. 'It used to be the case that you were happy, once specialised, to stay because the overall lump sum of money from your salary and commuted overtime made up a decent pay — not comparable to what you could earn in private — but decent enough to stay,' she said. She said she feels like doctors are now being under-valued and coming under attack by their own employer. 'The message we are getting is that 'if you're not happy, there's the door' — but what the department doesn't understand is that you can't just replace someone with 10 years' experience or someone who has 30 years' experience; it has a huge impact,' she said. 'Our patients are suffering; and every day it's like a game of Survivor. We run multiple clinics in one clinic space at Charlotte Maxeke, but you can't offer a functioning service like that. It's noisy, the computers don't work, and the intercom is going off the whole time. 'The other day, I had a 90-year-old patient have a panic attack in the waiting room. He had been waiting for a while and left his wife, who is blind, in the car. He had to park far from the hospital building because the parking lot from the hospital fire [in April 2021] is still not properly repaired and he was overcome with worry,' she said. Dr B works at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and he said the debacle over doctors' overtime pay has pushed him to the edge. He said doctors are already overworked and disheartened from working within a failing system. He sent photos to Spotlight of theatres and wards in darkness, as power went off at the Soweto hospital for days at the end of April. He said staff bring in their own toilet paper because they're told there's none. Most alarming, he said 'doctors are not getting the training and supervision they need' and regularly perform surgeries and procedures without adequate experience and with no supervision. 'They are overwhelmed, overworked and doing way too many overtime hours that they're not being paid for. Then they go home overtired, eat a pizza and crash, sleep a few hours then do it all over again the next day, and the next day,' he said. 'We, doctors, are literally the ones putting patients' lives at risk,' he said, adding that he is 'surviving on anti-depressants' and has sometimes shut himself away in hospital storerooms crying tears of sheer frustration, exhaustion and exasperation. Dr B does still count the wins though. It's on the days when he clears an impossibly long patient list of children who need procedures done. It's when he and his colleagues decide to push through to make sure no child's procedure gets cancelled. 'Those are the good days — they're just few and far between. And now the department is coming for us by cutting our overtime pay and forcing us to sign contracts to downgrade our overtime pay,' he said. Resignations and impact on training Professor Shabir Madhi is dean of the faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand. He said the proposed cuts and freezing of posts and changes to commuted overtime pay has already resulted in resignations of some senior staff at state hospitals. 'If we don't have the proper consultant staff complement in these hospitals who can provide supervision throughout the day, it compromises our training of specialists as well as of undergraduate students. 'If the Health Professions Council of South Africa were to do an audit and find that there isn't adequate consultant cover and supervision, they could remove the accreditation of the training programmes offered by the universities. 'The medical schools are completely dependent on the Gauteng Department of Health to retain consultants and other categories of staff, and to ensure that staff are allocated time for supervision and training of future medical doctors, including specialists, as well as other academic activities. 'It means decision-making around cuts to overtime pay need to be cognisant of the overall impact that it would have, and not only in how it would assess budget constraints. This situation needs meaningful and informed decision-making,' he said. Dr Phuti Ratshabedi, Gauteng chairperson of SAMATU, said the non-payment of commuted overtime pay in April was a slap in the face from the provincial health department, as the union had a meeting with the department that month and left with the department agreeing to uphold their contractual agreements to leave contracts terms for commuted overtime pay unchanged at least till the end of March 2026 — the end of the financial year. 'What we saw is that the department will promise one thing, and do another. But we will be holding them to what they stated in their own circular or we will look to legal action. 'What we want to see in this review period is that they go after departments [where overtime is not being performed but being paid for] but leave other departments alone — they cannot put everyone under the same blanket. 'If the government is able to bail out over and over things like Eskom and Transnet, how can they not prioritise healthcare — this sets our country way back, and we doctors will no longer be silent about this,' said Ratshabedi. Spotlight sent questions to the Gauteng Department of Health, including on how the payment delay happened; the number of people affected; how the department is addressing the widespread knock-on effects of their proposed commuted overtime cuts; and what amendments they hope will come out of the national review. Despite several reminders, the department did not respond to our questions. DM
Daily Maverick
05-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Back to the office — can your boss force you to go?
South African labour law hasn't kept pace with the mass migration to home offices, shared dining tables or kitchen counters. While remote work has become a new default, it presents a legal grey zone that could trip up both workers and the companies relying on them. Once a pandemic lifeline, remote and hybrid work are now permanent fixtures of South Africa's employment landscape. Logging in from home might feel like business as usual, but the right to do so can be shaky in legal terms. Meanwhile, employers hoping to drag teams back to the office face legal, ethical and operational complications. 'Remote working is not specifically catered for in [South Africa's] current legislative framework,' says Yvonne Mfeka, director of employment law at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. 'However, the ability to work remotely will be construed as a benefit for purposes of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).' The contract conundrum The Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) mandates that employers provide written particulars of employment. If your office has shifted to your living room, your paperwork needs to reflect that. 'Updated contracts protect both the employer and employee by clearly outlining expectations, responsibilities and rights in the new working arrangement,' Fatima van Toorn, managing member of FvT HR consulting, explains. Data protection, confidentiality, electricity costs, backup power and even internet expenses should be ironed out in writing. 'There should be clear stipulations about who bears the cost for internet, electricity and equipment needed for remote work,' Van Toorn says. While it may seem like a perk, Van Toorn warns that remote work should always come with a built-in back door: 'Contracts should include provisions about the employer's right to revoke the employee's concession to work remotely and revert to office-based work if necessary.' Productivity gains and losses For some, remote or hybrid work has been a gift of time and efficiency. Van Toorn says that many of their clients have retained remote working or hybrid arrangements since the pandemic, precisely because performance remained strong. 'Remote work has had a positive impact on employees who were accustomed to spending many wasted hours sitting in traffic,' she says. But not every home office is a sanctuary of focus and flow. Freelance copywriter Havana Duancey, who has worked remotely part-time since 2021, offers a more nuanced take. 'Working remotely was conducive to my productivity because it allowed me to work around my studies and choose my own hours,' she points out. 'However, I'm definitely more productive in a group setting […] communication was much more effective in person.' Duancey's experience highlights a common concern: while remote work offers flexibility, it can erode team cohesion and mental health. 'My mental health definitely benefits from a separation between work and rest,' she says, 'so I would sometimes struggle setting boundaries between work and rest time while working from home.' How does this affect you? If you're an employee: Check your contract. If it doesn't mention hybrid or remote arrangements, you may have less protection than you think. If remote work is listed as a benefit, your employer can't yank it without your consent. You still have rights such as rest periods and fair treatment, even if you're working in slippers. If you're an employer: Update contracts and create clear remote work policies. Know that you can require a return to the office, but only if it's fair, lawful and contractually sound. Protect your company by addressing compliance and performance management proactively. The risks of remote Keeping a workforce together that's scattered across suburbs, cities or provinces is a puzzle of compliance. 'The Occupational Health and Safety Act requires employers to provide a safe working environment,' Van Toorn says. 'Ensuring home workspaces meet safety standards is challenging to monitor and enforce. Liability for injuries sustained while working from home can become a challenge.' There's also the matter of working hours and overtime. The BCEA regulates these tightly, but enforcing them in a remote context is a different beast. 'Monitoring actual working hours becomes more challenging,' Van Toorn notes. 'The blurring of work-life boundaries can lead to employees working outside of agreed hours, raising questions about compensation and compliance.' Other issues include employment equity — where remote work may disadvantage employees without reliable home setups — and cross-border complications. 'Employees might work from different provinces or even countries,' Van Toorn says, which can create 'complex tax implications and questions about which labour laws apply.' Can they really force you back to the office? Short answer: yes. Long answer: it's complicated. Mfeka confirms that employers could require their employees to return to the office. However, they had to do so fairly and lawfully. 'To the extent that an employer compels an employee to return to the office without reaching an agreement, this would potentially constitute a breach of contract of employment,' Mfeka says. Changing your work location, just like changing your salary or job title, requires consent. Thus, you can't be dragged back into peak-hour traffic without some paperwork and a conversation. DM
IOL News
05-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Employment Equity alone won't fix economic inequality
President Cyril Ramaphosa calls for the workers' rights to be protected to build an inclusive economy. President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that not enough has been done to change the racial composition of the ownership, control and management of the economy despite improvements that came with the employment equity law. In his newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa delivered a sobering reflection on South Africa's slow progress in transforming the racial structure of economic power Ramaphosa advocated for the workers' rights to be protected to allow space for a more inclusive economy. He stated that the introduction of the employment equity law managed to reduce the inequality of workers in the workplace. This included the introduction of the National Minimum Wage, the prohibition of unfair discrimination based on sex, gender, pregnancy and marital status. 'Over the past 31 years, we have made considerable progress in improving our labour laws and protecting the rights of workers. 'We emerged from a past where black workers were deliberately denied their rights. For many years, black workers could not be organised into unions, through job reservation, they were denied access to certain occupations, and they often worked in unsafe and unhealthy conditions,' he said. However, Ramaphosa stressed that employment equity was not the only area where challenges remain. According to the president, the International Labour Organisation has highlighted problems of compliance with labour laws in South Africa, which will be part of the G20 presidency agenda. Despite these challenges, Ramaphosa said they will continue to use the progressive labour laws to correct the imbalances of the past and to ensure that these protections translate into tangible benefits for workers. 'We call on business in particular to take the necessary measures to ensure that their workplaces reflect both the letter and spirit of laws such as the Labour Relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Employment Equity Act and Occupational Health and Safety Act,' he said. He maintained that companies should go beyond compliance to address the historical inequalities and create opportunities for underrepresented groups among their workers. 'They should also ensure that their workplaces are spaces where dignity, respect and human rights are upheld in daily practice and not just in policies,' he added. IOL Politics
