How Does Maternity Leave Work?
The law protects women against unfair discrimination arising from any form of prejudice. An employer may not ask a candidate who applies for a job if she is pregnant, nor if she is planning to start a family at any stage.
If you do, she could argue that you are discriminating against her. Equally, she is in no way obliged to disclose her pregnancy when applying for a position.
The bottom line is that it has nothing to do with the candidate’s ability to meet the requirements of the position. And nothing stops her from resigning once she has returned to work after taking maternity leave. She has rights regardless.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act stipulates that an employee is entitled to four months unpaid maternity leave. All that is required is a notification by the employee that she is pregnant, accompanied by a doctor’s certificate.
This leave should start four weeks before the expected date of birth, or when a doctor or midwife certifies that leave is necessary for the health of the mother or child.
An employee must notify her employer in writing of the date on which she wants to start maternity leave.
She may not work for six weeks after delivery, unless she is declared fit to do so.
An employee who has a miscarriage during the last three months of pregnancy or who bears a stillborn child is also entitled to six weeks maternity leave, whether or not she has started maternity leave at the time.
Companies in South Africa are not obliged by law to provide paid maternity leave. A female employee who works for a company that does not offer maternity benefits can claim from the Maternity Benefit Fund if she has been contributing to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
An employer who pays maternity leave does have some rights, however. Paid maternity leave is a benefit, and the company is within its rights to conclude a contract with the employee stating that if she does not return to work for at least one year following her confinement, she will be obliged to return the salary she earned during her maternity leave.
South Africa has no paternity leave provisions in place, but workers who have been employed at a company for longer than four months may take three days’ paid family responsibility leave during each year of employment.