Now, more than ever, compliance has been a focal point for the Department of Labour in South Africa.
Not only in terms of fair labour practices at the workplace, but also hitting close to home, giving truth to the statement that we all live in glass houses.
For those employing a domestic worker, it may not be as simple as paying a possibly below par wage for an honest day’s work.
Let’s look at who is considered a domestic worker and indirectly making you an employer and the responsibility to stay complaint.
Domestic workers are employees who are assigned duties to perform in the home of the employer for example:
- Gardeners,
- domestic drivers,
- persons who looks after children (nannies), the aged, sick, frail or disabled in a private household,
- excluding farm workers.
As an employer of a domestic worker you will have the same responsibilities as any other business owner in terms of ensuring compliance to the applicable labour laws and fair practices.
Should the employee (domestic) be employed for more than 24 hours a month, you as the employer will become liable to register the employee for UIF. In order to register as an employer to a domestic worker you will need to complete a UI-8D along with the UI-19 declaration stating the employee details or register on the U-filing website at www.ufiling.co.za.
As with any other employee wage or salary, including your own, a total of 2% of your monthly earnings (1% from each of the employer and employee respectively) will need to be paid over to the Department of Labour capped at a total of R148.72 (2019) per contributor per month.
With a platform like U-filing providing everyday ease of access to both declarations and payments, one would think that more households would comply and enable their domestic employees to have a sense of security for when uncertain times hit.
Whether it can be put down to a lack of education regarding the topic or just willful ignorance is up for debate, but regardless of the outcome, we are forcing the hand of the Department of Labour and their officials in enforcing the laws set out to protect those who cannot necessarily enforce it themselves.
For a service platform that has been modernised (although not always working properly) and made available free of charge, it still seems to be one of the most underutilized tools at any employer’s disposal. Perhaps making more use of compliance tools like U-filing will generate a stronger voice from us all as potential employers for more effort to be put into the design and delivery aspect of such tools. Not only ensuring an effective way of complying, but an increased willingness to do so.
Will the status quo remain? Definitely not! With the introduction of NHI more legislative contributions can be foreseen soon across all employers.
The Domestic, SMME or Corporate market will be compelled to adhere to legislation across sizes, insure you are with the best service provider taking care of your employee’s full life cycle.
Even at home.
For more information on the above topic, please contact the LabourNet Helpdesk at
0861 LABNET (0861 522638). Email us: support@labournet.com or visit www.labournet.com.