Family responsibility leave: the rules for employers

Family responsibility leave is three days of paid leave a year that the law gives an employee when their child is sick or when a close family member dies. It comes from section 27 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (the BCEA, the law that sets minimum working conditions in South Africa). It only applies to staff who have worked for you for more than four months and who work at least four days a week.

That's the short answer. The detail is where small employers get caught out: whose death counts, what proof you can ask for, what happens to unused days, and the change in 2020 that many online guides still haven't caught up with.

If you're about to take on your first employee, Govchain can register you for UIF and PAYE with SARS, and run the payroll that tracks leave like this for you.

Who qualifies for family responsibility leave?

Section 27(1) sets two tests. The employee must:

have worked for you for longer than four months, and
work for you on at least four days a week.

Someone who has been with you for three months doesn't qualify yet. Neither does a part-timer who works three days a week, however long they've been with you. And the whole leave chapter of the Act, sick leave and annual leave included, doesn't apply to anyone who works for you fewer than 24 hours a month (section 19).

Two groups people often assume are excluded actually qualify. Senior managers and high earners are left out of the BCEA's rules on working hours and overtime, but not out of the leave chapter. If your sales manager earns R80,000 a month and her son is in hospital, she gets family responsibility leave like anyone else.

How many days, and how they're paid

The employer must grant three days' paid leave in each annual leave cycle. The annual leave cycle is the 12 months from the employee's start date, then each 12 months after that. It is not the calendar year or the tax year. An employee who started on 1 June 2026 gets a fresh three days on 1 June 2027.

A few rules follow from the wording of the Act:

It can be taken in part days. Section 27(4) allows leave for "the whole or a part of a day". Two hours to fetch a sick child from school uses a quarter of a day if the employee works eight-hour days.
It's paid at the normal wage. You pay what the employee would ordinarily have earned that day, on their usual pay day (section 27(3)).
Unused days don't carry over. Section 27(6) says unused leave lapses at the end of the cycle. It doesn't build up like annual leave, and you don't pay it out when someone leaves.

Family responsibility leave is separate from annual leave and sick leave. You can't take a day from either of those to cover a funeral and call it done. You also can't make an employee use family responsibility days for their own illness.

What counts: a sick child or a death in the family

The Act lists the reasons exactly. The leave covers:

When the employee's child is sick. The BCEA defines a child as a person under 18. An employee whose 22-year-old daughter is ill doesn't qualify under this heading.
The death of the employee's spouse or life partner.
The death of the employee's parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling.

That list is closed. A death that isn't on it, such as an aunt, uncle, cousin or parent-in-law, isn't covered by law. Many employers grant the time anyway, as annual leave, unpaid leave or extra paid days. That's a decent thing to do, and it's worth writing your approach into your leave policy so everyone gets the same answer.

The birth of a child no longer counts

This is the change most guides miss. Until the end of 2019, section 27 also gave the leave "when the employee's child is born". The Labour Laws Amendment Act 10 of 2018 repealed that paragraph from 1 January 2020, and replaced it with parental leave of ten consecutive days, which the employee claims through UIF rather than as paid leave from you.

Parental leave has since changed again. On 3 October 2025 the Constitutional Court ruled in Van Wyk v Minister of Employment and Labour that the different leave periods for mothers and fathers were unconstitutional. Until Parliament amends the Act, parents can share four months and ten days of leave between them as they choose. The court gave Parliament 36 months to make the change.

For your payroll, the practical point is simple. A new father asking for "family responsibility leave for the birth" is asking for parental leave. Point him to the parental leave rules and the UIF calculator for what UIF will pay, and keep his three family responsibility days for a sick child or a bereavement.

The Department of Employment and Labour's own basic guide to family responsibility leave is dated 2012 and still lists a child's birth. Go by the Act as amended.

Domestic workers get five days

Domestic workers are covered by Sectoral Determination 7 (the separate rulebook the minister sets for the domestic work sector), not only the BCEA. Clause 21 gives a domestic worker five days of paid family responsibility leave in each 12 months of employment, on the same four-months and four-days-a-week tests. The clause as published still lists a child's birth among the reasons.

If you employ a housekeeper, nanny or gardener four or more days a week, budget for five days, not three. Our domestic worker contract template sets out the leave terms so they're agreed in writing from the start.

Other sectors can differ too. Section 27(7) lets a collective agreement (a deal between employers and a union, often through a bargaining council) change the number of days and the reasons. If your business falls under a bargaining council, check its agreement before you apply the BCEA defaults.

What proof can you ask for?

Section 27(5) lets you ask for "reasonable proof" of the event before you pay for the leave. In practice that means:

for a sick child, a medical certificate or a note from the clinic or hospital,
for a death, a death certificate, a funeral notice or a letter from the funeral parlour.

"Reasonable" matters. A grieving employee may not have a death certificate within a week, because Home Affairs takes time. A funeral programme or a letter from the undertaker is usually enough to start with. Asking for a certified copy before you'll even talk about it isn't reasonable.

Notice that the proof rule is tied to payment. The Act doesn't let you refuse the leave because the proof isn't in yet. What it lets you do is hold back the pay for those days until the employee gives you reasonable proof.

Can an employer refuse family responsibility leave?

Not when the employee qualifies, has days left in the cycle, and the reason is on the list. Section 27(2) says the employer "must grant" the leave at the employee's request. Refusing it, or docking pay for a properly proved day, is a breach of the BCEA. The employee can take it to the Department of Employment and Labour's inspectors or to the CCMA (the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration).

You can refuse, or treat the time as unpaid or annual leave, when:

the employee doesn't meet the four-months or four-days tests,
the three days for this cycle are used up,
the reason isn't on the list, such as a cousin's funeral or a sick adult child, or
no reasonable proof is given (in which case you can withhold pay for the days).

Whatever you decide, put it in writing and apply it the same way to everyone.

A worked example

Thandi works five days a week at a small print shop and has been there for a year. She earns R9,750 a month and her daily rate works out to R450. Her leave cycle restarted on 1 March.

In April her eight-year-old son has tonsillitis. She leaves at lunchtime to take him to the clinic and brings a clinic note the next day. That's half a day of family responsibility leave, paid at R225.
In July her grandmother dies. She takes two days for the funeral and brings the funeral programme. That's R900, paid on her usual pay day.
In October her uncle dies. She has half a day left, but an uncle isn't on the list. The employer offers her annual leave for the day instead.

By the end of February her remaining half day lapses. On 1 March she starts the new cycle with three days again.

Common misconceptions

"It's three days per event." It's three days per annual leave cycle in total. A second funeral in the same cycle comes out of the same three days.

"Unused days roll over or get paid out." They lapse at the end of the cycle (section 27(6)). They're not added to annual leave and aren't paid out on resignation.

"Paternity leave is family responsibility leave." Not since 1 January 2020. A birth is now covered by parental leave, which the Constitutional Court widened in October 2025.

"Part-timers get a pro-rata share." No. Someone who works fewer than four days a week doesn't qualify at all under the BCEA, though you can offer leave in their contract.

Write it down before you need it

Most disputes about this leave start because nobody wrote the rules down. Put three things in every employment contract: the number of days, the proof you'll ask for, and how you'll handle deaths that aren't on the statutory list. Our free employment contract generator includes a leave clause you can edit.

Then track it. Each day of family responsibility leave should show on the payslip as paid leave, not as an unpaid absence. If you're doing payroll by hand, the free payslip generator works out PAYE and UIF for one employee at a time. For the bigger picture of running payroll as a small employer, see how to do payroll in South Africa.

FAQ

Does family responsibility leave apply to a sick spouse?

No. The Act covers a sick child under 18 and a list of deaths, including a spouse's. Caring for a sick spouse or parent isn't covered, so the employee would use annual leave or ask for unpaid leave.

Is a funeral for an in-law covered?

Not by the BCEA. The list covers the employee's own parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and siblings, plus a spouse or life partner. A parent-in-law isn't on it, though a bargaining council agreement or your own policy can add one.

Can I ask for a death certificate?

Yes, you can ask for reasonable proof before paying. A death certificate is the strongest proof, but a funeral programme or an undertaker's letter is often more realistic in the first weeks.

Does a new employee get family responsibility leave?

Not for the first four months. After that, if they work at least four days a week, they get three days in the leave cycle that runs from their start date.

Can family responsibility leave be taken in hours?

Yes. Section 27(4) allows part of a day, so a two-hour clinic visit uses only part of the entitlement.

Let Govchain run the payroll side

Leave rules only work if your payroll records them properly, month after month. Govchain Payroll keeps leave, payslips, PAYE, UIF and the monthly SARS returns in one place, from R400 a month for up to two employees. If you haven't registered as an employer yet, start with PAYE registration and we'll handle the SARS and UIF paperwork.