An employee has been with the company for 5.5 years and has resigned and is in a negative sick leave balance (more than the 30 days allowed per 3 year cycle). Can the negative sick leave amount be deducted from their final payout?
An employee has been with the company for 5.5 years and has resigned and is in a negative sick leave balance (more than the 30 days allowed per 3 year cycle). Can the negative sick leave amount be deducted from their final payout?
Nope, I do not think so. Maybe technically, but I am sure the CCMA will frown upon it and if there is other issues at hand, this will just negatively influence it. I will wait for the authoritative answer.
~Expenses will eat you alive! - My first Boss~
Thanks IMHO - what other issues refer?
No, I am not saying there is other issues.
~Expenses will eat you alive! - My first Boss~
I would look at the amount involved and then decide is it worth going to the CCMA about. The standard procedure for employees seems to be go to the CCMA when you leave a company. If there are other issues then deduct it so you can concede that at the CCMA so they feel they won something. Speaking to other companies they often get advised after firing someone to concede to the 2 months salary at the hearing as the cost of fighting it is not worth the saving you make.
This is not the correct solution but rather a dogmatic one.
Only stress when you can change the outcome!
How many days are we talking about here?
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop "The Lion and the Mouse"
I think deducting this is looking for trouble and the employee will probably take it to the CCMA.
Arguments to be used:
An employer can not give a benefit and then take it away.
Was there any conditions put on paper regarding the allowance of the extra sick leave?
How would the next sick leave cycle been affected?
Was this just allowed in kindness or borrowed from the next cycle?
Has the next cycle started yet?
24 Days is nearly a months salary and worth it for the employee to take to CCMA. The employee might for the same trouble now dig up other issues that is not even known at the moment, just to try his/her luck. Is all your paperwork in place to the letter of the law? Contracts, timesheets correctly filled in, UIF, WCF, record of leave and sick leave, PAYE deductions, anything else that could come into play.
~Expenses will eat you alive! - My first Boss~
Ok so I am going to make a few presumptions.Total of 24 days
First presumption was that the sick-leave taken was not as a result of being injured on duty.
Second presumption is that you extended the sick leave to the person out of the kindness of your heart, expecting them to continue working for you.
Third presumption is that the person is not giving up work as a result of illness (being bordered by the doctor)
Fourth presumption is that the person resigned and was not terminated.
If the above is true, then it means that your relationship with the person is such that you can have a heart-to-heart discussion pointing out that he/she should have taken unpaid leave when their sick leave had run out. As a result of their resignation, you now find yourself in the position where you will have to deduct those days from their payout as the time taken off work should, technically, have been non-paid leave. If they were to agree to it, then have them sign a document to that effect. Even if they go to the CCMA at a later date, you at least have the argument that it was discussed and agreed upon. You might still lose, but at least you did not just arbitrarily take the money off.
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop "The Lion and the Mouse"
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