HRTorQue REPORTER

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity." Industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1935 - 1999)

People are in the best position to lead when they themselves excel within their own role, irrespective of the position or status that they hold.

1.	Have a clear understanding of why the organisation is in existence.
2.	Listen and listen. It is the only evidence of caring.
3.	Promote excellence and value those around you who possess other attributes or who are more gifted than you are.
4.	Avoid the temptation to "dabble" (work at anything in an irregular or superficial manner) into other people's roles.
5.	Finalise your own work and deliverables.
6.	Resist the urge to over-function into the space of others and disempowering them, or under-function, so others have to pick up your slack.
7.	If you have to accept new functions or ideas, engage and aim towards "big picture" thinking.
8.	ALL activities have functions and activities that you will not enjoy. Do them to the best of your ability anyway.
9.	Expose gossipers.
10.	Decide if you can and want to fulfil your purpose. If you can - give it your all. If you can't, find a job somewhere else.

Retirement funds (Pension, Provident and Retirement Annuity funds) have their own unique tax and administration rules. This makes their administration unnecessarily complex, and prone to mistakes being made by all parties.

Going back to the 2011 and 2012 budgets, proposals were made to harmonise the different tax rules into one standard rule, and the current rules for retirement annuity funds is the intended direction.

1.	Employer-paid contributions to all retirement funds will be taxed as a fringe benefit in the hands of the employee. The fringe benefit will give rise to a deemed contribution to the fund by the employee.
2.	Employees will be permitted a deduction in respect of employer plus employee contributions to retirement funds up to 27.5% of the greater of employment or taxable income. For equity reasons, deductible contributions will be limited to R350 000.
3.	A rollover dispensation similar to the one currently applying to retirement annuity contributions will be adopted to allow flexibility for those with fluctuating incomes (non-deductible contributions will be rolled forward and not lost).
4.	Contributions towards risk benefits plus the administration costs will be included in the maximum percentage allowable deduction

The changes are planned to be made effective from March 2014, but there are some difficult areas that need to be addressed:
1. The concepts of taxable and employment income must be defined.
2. Defined benefit funds pose some areas of difficulty.
3. Provident funds, being fundamentally different in nature from pension and retirement annuity funds,
    need special attention.

In addition to this "standardisation" process, there is a National Retirement Fund in the planning stage, and attention will also be given to the taxation and administration of cross-border pensions.

If you process your payroll with HRTorQue, please note these changes will be made on your behalf.

 
A Government Gazette notice was published on 20 March in respect of an increase in the maximum amount of earnings on which the assessment of an employer shall be calculated.

The prescribed amount in terms of section 83(8) of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 1983 has increased to R312,480 per annum with effect from 1 April 2013.

HRTorQue Outsourcing offers this service to clients. Please contact [email protected] for further information.

The W.As 8 form has been issued in Gazette #36254.

Note the following:

1.	There are not substantive changes to the W.As 8 form from last year.
2.	The W. As 8 form requires the employer to submit monthly headcount and earnings figures for the 2012/13 and the 2013/14 year (the internet ROE submission method only requires annual figures).
3.	For both methods of submission (WE.As 8 form and the internet ROE system), the deadline submission date has been extended to 30 April 2013.
4.	Discounts ranging from 2% to 10% for payment of the assessed amount are available only if the internet ROE submission method is used for submission.
5.	There is also amnesty on penalties and interest (up to 30 June 2013) for submissions that have not been made/received for prior years.
6.	Prior year submissions should also be made by using the internet ROE submission method.
7.	If the employer used the internet based ROE system last year, then the W.As 8 manual form may not be used, i.e. the ROE system must be used again this year.
8.	From 1 April 2012, the maximum earnings on which the assessment of an employer shall be calculated has increased to R292 032 per annum. The Compensation Commissioner makes the same earnings threshold effective from 1 March 2012.
9.	From 1 April 2013, the maximum earnings on which the assessment of an employer shall be calculated has increased to R312 480 per annum. The Compensation Commissioner makes the same earnings threshold effective from 1 March 2013. This increase has just been issued in Gazette No. 36273.
10.	The fact that the Minister of Labour Gazettes the effective date as 1 April, and the Compensation Commissioner specifies it as 1 March, is still with us. In my opinion, both dates can be used, but one should do so consistently (i.e. don't change from one to the other from year to year).

In the event that parties at CCMA were unable to settle the matter at conciliation, the applicant (employee) can request for the matter to be set down for arbitration. Arbitration is a more formal process and is conducted in much the same manner that a disciplinary hearing would be held. At the arbitration, the commissioner records the proceedings and both parties lead evidence, which may include witnesses in favour of their version of the events. The commissioner's role is to listen, investigate and ultimately determine which version he/she believes is more likely.

At arbitration, attorneys are permitted to be presented provided that the matter is not related to the conduct of the employee. However, even in this instance, either party may make representation to the commissioner requesting an attorney but this request may be refused. Individuals who belong to a union are entitled to be represented by a union official and employers belonging to an employer's organisation may be represented by a fellow member of that organisation.

Once all the evidence has been presented, the commissioner will decide on the award or outcome. An arbitration award must be issued within fourteen (14) days of the arbitration hearing.

The arbitration award usually covers the following:
•  Details of hearing and representation
•  Issue to be decided
•  Background to the issue
•  Survey of evidence and argument
•  Analysis of evidence and argument

Ultimately the award determines which of the two parties was the victor and the outcome.

In October 2012, there was no mention made of how to fund the NHI in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement. However, the Department of Health received a significant increase to its budget with an additional R500 million added to its original budget for the 2012/13 fiscal year.

National Treasury plan to issue a discussion document that will give us an idea of how the NHI will be funded. This discussion document was due to be issued in November 2012, then delayed until February 2013 and delayed again until later in 2013 for further consultation.

Funding options proposed in previous budgets were:
1. A special tax on high income earners, or
2. An increase to VAT; or
3. A mandatory contribution by all employees (administered through the payroll).

The Youth Subsidy is back in favour after being kicked into touch at the June 2012 ANC Policy Conference in favour of the Job Seeker Grant, which seems to have died a natural death.

The 2013 budget proposes an administratively simple subsidy incentive for the employment of young people that will create a graduated (sliding scale) tax incentive at the entry-level wage, falling to zero when reaching the personal income tax threshold. A similar subsidy is proposed for eligible workers of all ages who earn below tax threshold for under 65 year old employees within special economic zones (not specified).

The two subsidies will be administered through the PAYE system (payrolls plus employers plus SARS) and legislation will be drawn up to define the process as soon as possible. This project will impact on payroll systems. There is no indication at this stage of when this will happen, but because of the urgency to assist jobless young people, be prepared that it will happen during 2013, and earlier rather than later.

At last it looks as though something practical will be done to help the unemployed youth of our country.

Ensure that you have a policy in place!

The Employment Equity Act states that harassment, which includes  harassment, is a form of unfair discrimination and is prohibited.

What is  harassment?
According to the code of good practice  Harassment is any unwanted conduct of a  nature.

1.	harassment may include unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct, but is not limited to the examples listed as follows:
	a.    Physical conduct of a  nature b. Verbal forms of  harassment c. Non-verbal forms of  harassment d. Quid pro quo harassment occurs where an owner, employer, supervisor, member of management or co-employee undertakes or attempts to influence the process of employment, promotion, training, discipline, dismissal, salary increment or other benefit of an employee or job applicant, in exchange for  favours.
2.	favouritism exists where a person who is in a position of authority rewards only those who respond to his/her  advances.

When conducting training, I find that many employers and employees are not clear on exactly what constitutes  harassment, especially when the conduct verges on the line of being innocent or well meaning. An example on this is calling people "sweet lips". Some individuals are 100% certain that this is  harassment, others not so sure and still others are dead certain that it is not.

The challenge with this lack of clarity is that each person will use their own point of reference when deciding appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. So what one person deems appropriate another may take great offence to.

There is no limit on the monetary award for unfair discrimination at CCMA.

As the employer, it is your responsibility to firstly protect your employees, clients and associates from  harassment and secondly to ensure that you adequately deal with allegations relating to  harassment. Should you fail to adhere to either of these responsibilities, you could face a costly consequence.

Having a  Harassment Policy can go a long way to ensure that you can protect yourself and all those at your workplace.

Head Office (Durban)   Phone: 031 564 1155 Fax: 031 564 1228   Email: [email protected] Website: www.hrtorque.co.za   Address: 163 Umhlanga Rocks Dr, Durban North     Sales Melany Bydawell: 031 582 7425 / 083 441 5618 [email protected] Payroll & HR Administration Karen van den Bergh: 031 582 7413 / 082 891 1722 [email protected] Human Resources / Employee Relations Melany Bydawell: 031 582 7425 / 083 441 5618 [email protected]

Employment Equity & Skills Development Melany Bydawell: 031 582 7425 [email protected] Nicky Hardwick: 031 582 7418 [email protected]   Tax Dave Beattie: 031 582 7410 [email protected] Executive Coach and Team Interventions Iole Matthews   Payroll Third Party Administrator Kacey Chetty: 031 582 7409 [email protected]   Accounts Cheryl Naidoo: 031 582 7408 [email protected] Dispatch Karl van der Merwe: 031 582 7407 [email protected]