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| Table of Contents |
1. Season's Greetings
2. Domestic Workers - Minimum Wage
3. UIF Benefits - Maternity Leave - The Facts
4. Accelerate
5. Garnishee Orders and Employees Suspended without Pay
6. Half a Loaf is Better than No Bread
7. Contact the HRTorQue Team |
| 1. Season's Greetings |
A new day and a brand new year will cοme, bringing with it opportunities tο shine. Μake the most οf this year to achieve success in all your endeavours. Μay this year bring new happiness, new gοals, new achievements and a lot of new inspirations on yοur life. Wishing yοu a year fully lοaded with success in every way.
Μay the choicest blessings of Gοd always bring peace and prosperity for yοu, your business and yοur family. Ηappy New Year. |
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The offices of HRTorQue will be closed from 22 December 2014 until 6 January 2015.
However some payroll clients will continue to process their payrolls over this time and special arrangements have been made to accommodate them.
For emergencies please call or email:
PAYROLL
Karen van den Bergh: 082 8911 722 or [email protected]
HR/IR
Melany Bydawell: [email protected] (email only)
Nicky Hardwick: 083 788 6999 or [email protected]
All the best,
Karen, Mel and staff of HRTorQue Outsourcing |
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| 2. Domestic Workers - Minimum Wage |
| Author: Karen van den Bergh |
Domestic workers' annual wages have been adjusted upwards in line with the new minimum wage.
"The new sectoral determination of domestic workers starting from 1 December 2014 to 30 November 2015 prescribes the minimum wages for domestic workers who work more than 27 ordinary hours per week. This was in accordance with laws protecting workers in sectors where they were exposed to potential exploitation, where worker organisations and trade unions were absent, and workers were not covered by regulating mechanisms.
In major metropolitan areas, domestic workers have an hourly rate of R10.95, the weekly rate is R476.68 and the monthly rate is R2 065.47. Domestic workers who do not work in major metros have an hourly rate of R9.30, weekly R418.32, and monthly R1 812.57.
Minimum wages for domestic workers from December 1, 2014 to November 30, 2015, working 27 ordinary hours per week or less were also adjusted. For those in major metropolitan areas the hourly rate is R12.40, weekly R334.74 and monthly R1 450.33. Those not working in major metros would receive an hourly rate of R10.98, weekly R296.35, and monthly R1 284.09.
This implementation was the last year in the current three-year sectoral determination cycle.
"While the jury is still out on whether sectoral determinations will continue in future, a new debate has started on the possibility of introducing the national minimum wage in South Africa, especially for the vulnerable." |
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| 3. UIF Benefits - Maternity Leave - The Facts |
| Author: Melany Bydawell |
All pregnant women who have been working and contributing to the UIF are entitled to claim for maternity UIF benefits and these claims can only be submitted once the person has commenced maternity leave.
The Facts:
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For every 6 days an individual has worked and contributed they receive 1 day's credit. The fund pays for a maximum of 121 days. |
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Persons receive between 38% and 58% of gross monthly salary, tax-free. The higher the salary, the lower the percentage. The maximum salary calculation is based on R12 478 gross, per month. |
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The fund is paid out monthly via EFT into a bank account. No cash or cheques are issued. |
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It is important that the person is not earning any income in order to be paid from the fund because the funds are paid in arrears. For example, an employee ceased earning a salary in August and the application is only processed end September, they will be paid for August and September. |
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Some organisations pay a portion of, or the entire salary. In these cases the employee can only claim UIF for the shortfall in payment. In other words the UIF amount plus the salary amount may not be greater than the monthly salary. |
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| 4. Accelerate |
| Author: Iole Matthews |
Accelerate is a management development programme designed to provide managers with cutting edge information and support the use of that knowledge within the workplace. The programme divides the content of what would normally be a two day workshop into a series of 90 minute modules which are interspersed with 60 minute coaching sessions to embed the learning.
Training sessions are scheduled approximately every two weeks with a coaching session run in the week between the training weeks.
We allow four months for the 6 modules in order to accommodate weeks in which the manager may not be available. Over the four month period the coaching supports the manager as the theoretical knowledge is tested in the real world, allowing the development of a skill set which is relevant and applicable to the organisational environment.
Content is partially tailored to the specific needs of the manager and the organisation but all courses contain the following:
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Fundamentals of Management - planning, leading, organising and controlling |
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Self-Management - emotional intelligence (EQ), authenticity, motivation |
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Performance Management - goal setting, managing diversity, employee engagement |
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Communication - having difficult conversations, managing conflict, sharing information |
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Team Building - group dynamics, organisational culture, building co-operative teams |
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Strategic Thinking - aligning performance goals to strategy, decision making, meeting management, monitoring performance |
Where more than one manager is enrolled on the course, it is suggested that the training sessions be run as group sessions to ensure alignment. Coaching sessions remain one-on-one.
Contact Melany Bydawell for further information: [email protected] |
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| 5. Garnishee Orders and Employees Suspended without Pay |
| Author: Karen van den Bergh |
I recently had an enquiry on how to handle a garnishee order for an employee who was suspended without pay. I reviewed the Act and consulted with our 'Garnishee' team and this is the feedback:
The Act is not clear, however, we usually advise clients to inform the collecting agent that the employee is suspended without pay and, as a result, the deduction cannot be made.
Once the hearing or disciplinary process is complete and the employee is dismissed, the collecting agent is to be informed of the dismissal and that no further deductions will be made for this employee.
If, however, the employee is re-instated, it is likely that their pay will also be re-instated for the period that they were suspended. In this instance, the deduction is to take place and the collecting agent informed that the employee has returned to duty and that deductions will continue.
Consider outsourcing your payroll and all your payroll 3rd party payments. For an efficient and cost effective service, contact Karen on 082 891 1722. |
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| 6. Half a Loaf is Better than No Bread |
| Author: Phumlani M UMajozi |
During South Africa's platinum miners' strike that ended in June this year, I was puzzled by union members who suggested they'd rather be unemployed than earn what they described as a "low wage". I was really startled by their remarks. It made no sense to me, not only because I have had low-wage jobs, but also because I couldn't imagine a poor desperate South African rejecting a low-pay job in favour of an incapability to feed, clothe and house their families.
During my first year at Rhodes University, eight years ago, I was lucky enough to find temporary jobs during the holidays, mostly in gardening and construction. I had also submitted my resumé to various restaurants and clothing shops and responded to a number of job advertisements, but with no luck.
When my father told me of a family in need of someone to assist with their garden at least once a week, I thought "Thank God". I was ecstatic and looked forward to work, long before I even knew how much I was going to be paid. What mattered to me most was that I was about to earn a wage that could, at some point, help me buy a bus ticket back to Grahamstown to continue with my Bachelor of Commerce studies. I needed the money.
My parents unfortunately did not have an opportunity to sit in a classroom. It's one of the reasons why I value education. My father had only three years of schooling while my mother never even set a foot in school, due to her father's very anachronistic traditional thinking.
Hence, financial challenges at home were immense. My mother was not able to work because she suffered from an illness. The disability grant she received from government was equivalent to what my father earned as a gardener. They had to keep up with raising three kids, one of whom in his first year at university.
So, for me to get up in the morning and head to work to get that low wage was very significant. At one point, my dad and I had to combine our salaries to buy groceries for the house. The situation would have been worse had my father been the only one employed at home. Even though the wages were low, the fact that more than one person was employed in the house made things much better.
In my second year at university, my parents no longer had to take care of me. After doing very well in my first-year Financial Mathematics course, I became a paid tutor, which lifted a heavy load from my parents' shoulders.
This is why I find it really baffling when labour unions publicly suggest that it is better to be unemployed than to have a low-wage job. This is simply not true. Being employed makes a huge difference; not only because of income, but also because of the sense of dignity that goes along with having a job. Many parents lose their dignity and their children's respect because of not being able to afford to take care of them. The emotional stress and hopelessness that results from this can be devastating.
Millions of South Africans are unemployed. I'm confident that they're at home not because they have rejected jobs that offer low wages, but because they cannot even find a low-wage job, no matter how long and hard they have been looking.
South Africa's unemployment rate currently hovers around 25%, but this statistic excludes people who have given up searching for work. The expanded unemployment rate, according to Statistics South Africa, now stands at 35.8% - which, I believe, is a serious crisis.
Many of the unemployed who have lost hope could well resort to alcohol and other types of drugs, which will further inflict a huge damage to our society.
Job creation should be at the forefront of all initiatives in South Africa. It's a matter that needs urgent attention. To surmount poverty, more and more jobs need to be created. And the driver of this job creation will not be government, it will be the private sector, because due to very limited resources, government is incapable of creating enough long-term jobs.
Growing up at home, thanks to those low-wage jobs that helped us put bread on the table, we were not as poor as we would have been without them. My jobs were not protected by unions and there were no national minimum wage laws. If that had been the case, I would not have found any of those jobs. This is the situation faced by millions of hopeless South Africans today. And now that the Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is pushing for the implementation of national minimum wage laws, God knows what will happen to multitudes of poor people who rely on low-wage jobs to survive.
When a minimum wage is imposed, or when a higher sector-specific wage is negotiated by unions, it means that poor unemployed people are prevented from negotiating a mutually beneficial relationship in which they would have a job instead of being destitute.
The levels of inequality in South Africa are extreme and completely undesirable. Legislating a higher minimum wage for those who already have jobs will result in employers becoming less able to hire those without jobs.
At home, half a loaf was better than no bread. This is true in every family. The idea parroted by unionists and their followers that unemployment is better than a low-wage job is utterly flawed. I have no idea whatsoever as to how they reach this illogical conclusion. When most adults have jobs in a household of more than ten people it makes a huge difference when compared to a situation where only one family member is employed. That is why we need to focus on job creation. We need to stop buying questionable ideas dreamt up by unionists who claim to be speaking on behalf of those who have nothing when in fact they are speaking for themselves and their employed members at the expense of millions of unemployed people.
Much of the rhetoric uttered by labour unions in public is simply not true. This includes the claim that they represent unemployed people. Unions have made it extremely difficult for unemployed people to find jobs as evidenced by union opposition to the Youth Wage Subsidy and other government initiatives aimed at addressing the unemployment crisis.
The question must be asked: Other than making it difficult for people to find jobs, what have the unions done for the 8.3 million unemployed people in South Africa? |
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| 7. Contact the HRTorQue Team |
Head Office (Durban)
Phone: 031 564 1155
Fax: 031 564 1228
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.hrtorque.co.za
Address: 163 Umhlanga Rocks Drive
Durban North, KwaZulu-Natal |
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Sales
Melany Bydawell: 031 582 7425
[email protected] or 083 441 5618
Payroll & HR Administration
Karen van den Bergh: 031 582 7413
[email protected] or 082 891 1722
Human Resources / Employee Relations
Melany Bydawell: 031 582 7425
[email protected] or 083 441 5618 |
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