LABOUR LAW
Digital employment related documents
The BCEA only specifies that records must be kept for a specified time period. It does not specify that it must be kept in hard copy. If the documents can be stored securely digitally, it should not be an issue when looking at labour law. However, it must just be kept secure in compliance with the POPI Act.

Garnishing orders

SARS IT88 and Court orders: You only comply with garnishees whilst the employee is in your employ, as the order pertains to an amount deducted from a salary. Once there is no salary to deduct from anymore, the employer’s obligation ends and such employer should just inform the person responsible for managing the garnishee order that the employee is no longer employed by him.

End date for monthly garnishing orders: The employer need to do exactly as instructed per the Court Order. Therefore, if there is an end date, the employer only pays until that date. I f there is no end date, the employer continues paying until he is instructed otherwise by a court. It is up to the employee to ensure that he follows up on garnishees if he wishes to challenge the order.

Payslip information
The following information must be present on the payslip in terms of section 33 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act:
33 Information about remuneration
(1) An employer must give an employee the following information in writing on each day the employee is paid:
(a) The employer’s name and address;
(b) the employee’s name and occupation;
(c) the period for which the payment is made;
(d) the employee’s remuneration in money;
(e) the amount and purpose of any deduction made from the remuneration;
(f) the actual amount paid to the employee; and
(g) if relevant to the calculation of that employee’s remuneration-
(i) the employee’s rate of remuneration and overtime rate;
(ii) the number of ordinary and overtime hours worked by the employee during the period for which the payment is made;
(iii) the number of hours worked by the employee on a Sunday or public holiday during that period; and
(iv) if an agreement to average working time has been concluded in terms of section 12, the total number of ordinary and overtime hours worked by the employee in the period of averaging.
(2) The written information required in terms of subsection (1) must be given to each employee-
(a) at the workplace or at a place agreed to by the employee; and
(b) during the employee’s ordinary working hours or within 15 minutes of the commencement or conclusion of those hours.
The above is the only information prescribed by the Act.
However, there is no reason why additional information (such as: Bank account details, ID number, etc.) may not be present on the payslip as the payslip is only available to the specific individual whos details are present on the payslip. The payslip is not presented to other persons without the relevant individual’s permission.
Rounding of net pay
The Labour legislation applicable in South Africa do not prescribed anything with regards to whether or not salary/wage payments are allowed to be rounded off.
However, should an employer use a method of rounding when paying salary/wages, it is suggested that it should be round-up and NOT down to prevent short payment disputes.