Annual leave is paid leave. According to the BCEA, every employee is entitled to annual leave. This annual leave cycle is 12 months following your appointment. However, some employers have chosen to standardise their workers’ annual leave in such a way that all their employees have their annual leave at the same time.
How South Africa calculates annual leaves in the workforce?
Your annual leave is calculated by multiplying your working days by three. So if you work six days a week, you will be entitled to 18 days of paid leave at the end of the year.
How many leave days is a South African employee entitled to?
Every South African worker has the right to 21 consecutive days of fully paid leave annually.
What happens if you don’t take your annual leaves?
This is a question that often comes up and we say, it differs from workplace to workplace. But under the labour law, if you do not take annual leave, it is not forfeited instead it is carried over to the next annual leave cycle.
What happens when your annual leave coincides with public holidays?
It happens more often than not for a worker’s annual leave to fall within public holidays. If that happens you are entitled to an extra day of annual leave for each public holiday. So for example, if your annual leave coincides with the Christmas festivities, you get an extra day of leave for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years’.
What happens with annual leave during a period of notice?
Unfortunately, you cannot take annual leave during a period of notice. Also, your employer cannot make you unless you both agree that you should take your annual leave during a notice period.
Can I take annual leave during a shutdown?
There is basically a shutdown period in December for the Christmas holidays. You can still take your leave during that period. However, if you choose to have your leave earlier, the shutdown period will be unpaid.
The rules that govern annual leave
Once you work for 24 hours or more a month you are entitled to annual leave.
You will enjoy 21 consecutive days of paid annual leave
A leave cycle is 12 months. And it starts from the first day you started working.
You will be paid for the number of working days that fall within the stipulated 21 days.
