Sonja Vorster
The recent amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, Sections 25 have brought about a welcome change for many young fathers.
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The insertion of Section 25.A. (1) provides that an employee, who is a parent of a child, is entitled to at least ten (10) consecutive days unpaid leave.
The payment of parental benefits as per subsection (5) of parental benefits will be determined by the Minister subject to the provisions of the UIF Act 63 of 2001.
This is a concern as the normal processing of a claim takes about 35 days and this can be hard on a family if the mother is waiting for maternity benefits and the father for paternity benefits.
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The paternity leave insert also provides for 10 consecutive days for an employee, who is an adoptive parent of a child who is below the age of two. One of the most surprising sections is Section 25.c.1. is for commissioning parental leave.
An employee, who is a commissioning parent in a surrogate adoption is, subject to subsection (6) entitled to at least 10 weeks consecutive days leave; or the parental leave in section (b) of 10 days.
This will have significant impact on parents using the surrogacy option as the mother who would be receiving the child from a surrogate birthmother can enjoy 10 weeks with the child and the father 10 days parental leave.
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This specific section has received a lot of jubilation in the gay community who often use the surrogacy option in having a child.
The questions comes in if a father can then still ask for three days paid family responsibility leave when a child is born and it needs to be noted by employers and employees that this provision is no longer valid.
Therefore amendments need to be made in contracts of employment. Family responsibility is now only when an employee’s child is sick; or in the event of death of the employee’s spouse, life partner; parent; adoptive parent; grandparent; child; adopted child; grandchild and sibling.
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