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| Table of Contents |
1. The Trick to Making Things Work in Your Business
2. Changes to the Official Interest Rate for Fringe Benefits
3. NEASA Nationwide Strike on 25 April 2018
4. Employer Requirements to Check Employees before they Work with Children or Mentally
Disabled Patients
5. Finance Administration Services
6. Youth Employment Scheme
7. Contact HRTorQue
Should you require any further detail on any of these topics, please feel free to contact us. |
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| 1. The Trick to Making Things Work in Your Business |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
Most businesses spend considerable time and effort trying to get their business processes right. The devil is often in the detail, but in our experience in payroll and HR we see successful companies understanding that any process success comes from three key elements:
System
The best companies have the right system to manage their process. This doesn't have to be the best in the market. It must however create the right platform to store information in a way that is easy to update and easy to extract (report). Considerable energy can be wasted when the system is not fit for purpose. The nice thing is that these days companies of all sizes can get access to systems - it is no longer the case these are only available to the large companies.
Policies and Procedures
"If there are no ground rules, you can't play the game." Often a lack of policies and procedures leads to confusion, incorrect processing and the wrong outcomes.
People
It goes without saying that getting the right people for the job is critical. Good managers will know this and will be prepared to have the difficult conversations and go through the pain to make sure they get the right people.
If you can tick all three boxes then it is likely you will be successful. |
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| 2. Changes to the Official Interest Rate for Fringe Benefits |
| Author: Karen van den Bergh |
The Official Interest Rate for calculating Fringe Benefits decreased by 0.25 % effective 1 April 2018.
Where an employer gives an employee a loan that is less than the official interest rate or interest free, the difference between the two must be treated a taxable Fringe Benefit.
This Fringe Benefit should be processed via the payroll and reported on the Employees IRP5 against SARS Code 3801.
The Official Interest Rate is defined in the Seventh Schedule as the rate of interest that is equal to the Repo Rate, plus 100 basis points (1%).
The repo rate decreased to 6.5% on the 28th March 2018, and the official interest rate therefore became 7.5% effective 1st April 2018.
Please note that HRTorQue Outsourcing have updated all their payroll outsourcing clients effective 1st April 2018. |
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| 3. NEASA Strike Warning 25 April 2018 |
| Author: Letter from Jaco Swart (National Collective Bargaining Co-ordinator) |
Dear NEASA members
Please be advised that the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has given notice of its intention to initiate a one day national protest action on 25 April 2018.
The protest action is aimed at highlighting the Federation's concerns surrounding the minimum wage, economic policy and free education.
Employees who wish to participate in this protest action are entitled to do so and no disciplinary action for absenteeism may be instituted against such employees.
The 'no work, no pay' rule will however be applicable.
Employers who have queries in this regard may contact the NCBC HOTLINE on 086 016 3272. |
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| 4. Employer Requirements to Check Employees |
| Author: Guardian (www.theguardian.co.za) |
Employer Requirements to Check Employees before they Work with Children or Mentally Disabled Patients
If you are an employer who employs employees, and those employees work in an environment where they may come into contact with children or mentally disabled persons, it is imperative that you ensure all your staff and service providers, whether they are remunerated or work as volunteers are checked against both the Sexual Offenders Register and the Child Protection Register.
What does the Legislation say?
Sexual Offenders Register - Chapter 6 of The Sexual Offences Amendment Act of 2007 dictates that anyone employing staff who will in any way come into contact with children at any time whilst on duty or who manages them must have them and their staff cleared against the Sexual Offences Register. The staff who have to be cleared would be anyone who is either paid or not paid (volunteers). This ensures that no staff member who has been convicted of a sexual crime against children can access children through employment.
Child Protection Register - Chapter 7 of the Children's Act of 2005 dictates that any person managing or operating, or who works with or has access to children either as an employee, volunteer or in any other capacity at an institution providing welfare services to children, including a child and youth care centre, a partial care facility, a shelter or drop-in centre, school, club or association providing services to children must be cleared against the Child Protection Register.
What are your obligations as an Employer (as contained in the Sexual Offences Amendment Act)?
(Section 45(1) of the Act) states that any employer who intends on employing a person or has employed any employee must, in the prescribed manner apply to the Registrar for a prescribed certificate, stating whether or not the particulars of the employee are recorded in the Register
What if an employee is on the register?
Any employer who determines that an employee is on the register at the time of the check or any time thereafter is required to terminate the employee's employment or, where possible, move them to a position in which they will have absolutely no access or contact with a child.
What if you don't check?
(Section 45(3)) - An employer, who fails to comply with any provision of this section, is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
Confidentiality
Once you, as the employer have received the results, the Act goes on to say that the information needs to remain confidential. Any person who wilfully discloses or publishes any information to any other person which he or she has acquired as a result of an application contemplated in section 44 or in any other manner, is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
What are your obligations as an Employer (Children's Act)?
Before a person is allowed to work with or have access to children the person managing them must establish whether or not that person's name appears in Part B of the Child Protection Register.
No person who is on the register may:
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Manage or operate, or participate or assist in managing or operating, an institution providing services to children. |
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Work with or have access to children at an institution providing services to children, either as an employee, volunteer or in any other capacity. |
What if you don't check?
Section 124 (2) states that If an employer is found guilty of failing to establish if an employee's name is on Part B of the register the employer is liable, on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years or both. If convicted of a second offence the person can be liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 20 years or both. |
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| 5. Finance Administration Service |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
At HRTorQue we specialise in providing payroll and HR administrative services. There is a close relationship between the processes in finance and those in payroll (often payroll is run by the finance department) including the need to accurately reconcile payroll and capture payroll information into the accounts (while retaining confidentiality).
We are therefore pleased to announce that we have added finance resources to our capabilities and are now able to offer a number of services to clients including those below.
Service Areas
For Payroll:
• Preparation of general ledgers for payroll info
• Reconciliation between payroll reports, EFT payments and general ledgers (critical for
audits)
• Financial reporting (based on payroll info)
Company Setup:
• Registration with CIPC
• Registration with SARS and Department of Labour (corp. tax, PAYE, UIF, SDL)
Company Returns:
• VAT returns
• Annual financial statement preparation
• Corporation tax returns
Management Reporting:
• Budget preparation
• Management reports
Finance Administration:
• Specific finance support to perform requested activities e.g. reconciliations, finance
projects, integrations, consolidations
• Finance outsourcing
- Bookkeeping
- Invoicing and debtors
- Billing and payments (creditors)
- Stock / inventory management |
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| 6. Youth Employment Scheme |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
Youth employment is a critical issue for South Africa. The Employment Tax Incentive was launched in January 2014 to reduce the cost to employers of hiring young people in order to help with this issue.
This ETI incentive is due to come to an end on the 28 February 2019 but will be reviewed by National Treasury during 2018. If the benefits exceed the tax revenue foregone, the sunset clause in the ETI will again be extended.
In addition, the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator public-private partnerships prepare young people for work through training and matching programmes.
To provide additional pathways for young people into the world of work, the state President recently formally launched the Youth Employment Service, known as YES. The YES initiative was initiated as a collaborated between government, business, labour and civil society. Companies such as Unilever, Sasol, Investec, ABSA and Netcare have come forward to provide work experience opportunities to the first 100 YES participants. The YES initiative aims to see more than one million young South Africans being offered paid work experience over the next three years.
How does YES work?
The programme has three channels through which employment opportunities can occur:
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Corporate work experiences - Business that participate in the programme create one year paid positions for youths aged between 18 and 35, in addition to their current headcount. |
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SMME host placements - Businesses that do not have the capacity to place more people in their organisations, have the option of sponsoring the salary for a one-year placement in small and medium enterprise (in year one for 7 to 10 months); and |
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SMME development - Young people are empowered to start and grow their own businesses, with support from YES in the form of training, seed funding and value - chain integration. |
There have been meetings early in 2017 to involve computerised payroll systems in the initiative and this resulted in the establishment of a working committee, this committee has met several times with the YES initiative team during the latter part of 2017 with a view to relating the data required by the YES team to the data available in payroll Systems.
Current Position
The following documents have recently been issued for public comment:
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Draft Requirements for B-BBEE verification for the YES initiative. |
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Draft Terms and Conditions: Youth Employment B-BBEE Recognition. |
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Draft Amendment Bill to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act that, amongst other key amendments, introduces the youth Employment Service initiative B-BBEE Recognition. |
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| 7. Contact HRTorQue |
Durban
Phone: 031 564 1155 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.hrtorque.co.za
Address: 163 Umhlanga Rocks Drive, Durban North, KwaZulu-Natal
Johannesburg
Ground Floor, West Wing, 6 Kikuyu Road, Sunninghill, 2191
Cape Town Office
Ground Floor, Liesbeek House, River Park, Gloucester Road, Mowbray, Cape Town, 7700
Bloemfontein Office
62 Kellner Street, Westdene, Bloemfontein
East London
24 Pearce and Tecoma Street, Berea, East London
Port Elizabeth
280 Cape Road, Newton Park, Port Elizabeth
Polokwane
125 Marshall Street, Polokwane
Nelspruit
Promenade Centre, First Floor, Suite 11A, Nelspruit |
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