Labour Laws Amendment Bill

The Portfolio Committee on Labour (“the Committee”) has before it the Labour Laws Amendment Bill [B26-2016] (formerly known as [PMB 5-2015]) (clause 10)

The Committee invites the public to submit written comments on a proposed amendment, hereunder, which seeks to correct a typographical error in section 24(5) of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 2001 (Act 63 of 2001) (“the Act”).

Section 24(5) of the Act currently contains an error where it refers to “17 to 32 weeks” as opposed to “17.32 weeks”, the latter being similar to the provision contained in section 24(4) of the Act which provides as follow:

“(4) For purposes of this section the maximum period of maternity leave is 17.32 weeks.”

The intention was to align benefits payable to a beneficiary who suffers a miscarriage or still-birth with maternity benefits.

Comments can be emailed to Zolani Sakasa at [email protected] by no later than 16h00 on Tuesday, 31 October 2017.

Enquiries can be made to Zolani Sakasa on Tel: 021-403 3735, cell 083 709 8488  

Amendment of section 24 of Act 63 of 2001, as amended by section 8 of Act 32 of 2003 and section 9 of Act 10 of 2016 

10. Section 24 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsection (5) of the following subsection:

‘‘(5) A contributor who has a miscarriage during the third trimester or

bears a still-born child is entitled to a full maternity benefit of [17 to 32] 17.32 weeks;”.