What are my rights as an employer if the Au Pair is in Lockdown?

There have been many questions around the rights of employers of domestic staff during lockdown, and to date there has been a fair amount of confusion, fake news and mixed messages about the topic. We have consulted with acclimated labour firms on behalf of all our clients to help shed some light on best practice during these trying times, below are some of our most frequently asked questions:

Do I need to pay my employee if he/she is not working during lockdown?

The general consensus during lockdown is “no-work-no-pay” (NWNP). This means that you are within your legal rights to temporarily lay off your employee during lockdown, therefore temporarily terminating their services until after the lockdown period. I do however need to stress that although you are within your right to implement NWNP, we are advising that each family consider their employee’s financial situation carefully before making any drastic decisions. We call on all employers in the position to spare even a portion of their employee’s salaries to please consider doing so.

Au Pairs/Tutors Working from Home?

Many employers are still using their au pairs/tutors in an online space to carry out home-school lesson plans and curriculums. This is proving to be successful, as a combination of the one-to-many teacher support and the one-on-one au pair/tutor support is the best way to take that extra pressure off parents and still ensure optimal learning. Au Pair Extraordinaire is launching our #SchoolFromHome online initiative that manages the entire school-from-home process. This will include your own personal online dashboard with lesson content and schedules (set up and managed by your au pair/tutor), tutor lesson reports, an integrated online whiteboard facility for conducting quality online tutoring sessions, and a lot more! This will be launched over the course of the next week, this will be accessible to all current families and au pairs/tutors.

This is the most desirable option and is a win-win for all – your children continue to get fully supported by your tutor/au pair and the stress of managing the school-from-home curriculum is no longer on your shoulders.

Short time- cut their working hours, reduce their pay

If you cannot pay your au pair/tutor their full salary, you can put them on short time. Short time is when an employee works reduced hours. Example: you can cut their salary by 25%, and at the same time cut their working hours by 25%. This ensures that your kids still get some online curriculum support during lockdown and while they are not able to go to school, and you are still relieved of a portion of the pressure of the homeschooling. This takes some of the financial pressure off you as an employer if you cannot afford to use them full time at this time.

Forced Paid leave

You can implement forced paid leave, whereby your employee utilises his/her accrued paid leave during this lockdown period. This may help mitigate the possibility that there will be no shutdown period in December this year.

What are my employee’s options if I cannot pay my employee a salary, or can only pay them a portion of their salary during lockdown?

You need to assist your employee with a UIF application.

The UIF can be approached to claim benefits and the Department of Employment and Labour has urged that the employers to assist with submitting the claims. The following documents must accompany a claim to the UIF:

• UI 19 and UI 2.7 (completed by employer);
• UI 2.1 (application form);
• UI 2.8 (bank form that must be completed by the bank);
• A letter from the employer confirming that the reduced working hours or temporary lay-off is due to the COVID-19 virus and the lockdown; and
• Copy of identity document.

During the lockdown and COVID-19 crisis, claims for UIF benefits can also be done online by visiting https://www.ufiling.co.za/uif/unemployment-benefits during lockdown