Traditionally, under the contract of employment and as a general principle as well as under the common law, employees were not entitled to remuneration unless he/she makes her services available to the employer. consequently an employee was not entitled to remuneration in case he/she took leave.
However, the position has since changed through various statutory provisions that had the effect of changing the status quo, as it was realized that employees would be seriously disadvantaged if leave was withheld from them or that it was not paid in certain circumstances. there are a number of notable leaves that the employee would be entitled to and they are, Vacation leave, Sick Leave, Disability leave( Temporary), Maternity leave, Paternity leave, family responsibility leave, special leave.
We shall now deal with Vacation Leave this week.
There is no common law obligation on an employer to provide an employee with vacation leave. however section 20(2) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 75 of 1997 prescribes that now employees are entitled to a vacation leave. An employee is now entitled to 21 days consecutive leave with full pay.
If the employee’s vacation leave is due and his/her employer request them to postpone taking it, to a later date, that employee does not loose credit for such leave and will still be entitled to full leave pay even if she is dismissed before she could take such leave. An employee may not be given notice of termination of his/her employment during his/her leave period