Providing Your Employees With Pay Slips

Smaller businesses often find it too difficult, time-consuming or unnecessary to comply with labour legislation relating to their employees. Whether you have 1, 10 or 100 employees, you are legally obliged to adhere to certain laws and this includes the issuing of pay slips.

Every time you pay your workers - weekly or monthly - you have to issue them with a pay slip so that you and the employee have physical documentation of their pay details. This not only shows your employees that they are being treated fairly and according to the law, but it also protects you should a dispute arise.

The pay slip must contain certain details:

• Employer's name and address

• Worker's name and occupation

• Period for which payment is made

• Total salary or wages

• Any deductions

• The actual amount paid

• If relevant to the calculation of pay, it must state the employee's pay and overtime rates, the number of ordinary and overtime hours worked, and hours worked on a Sunday or public holiday

• If a collective agreement to average working time has been concluded, the pay slip must reflect the total number of ordinary and overtime hours worked in the period of averaging

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act governs the employer/employee relationship. It applies to all employers and workers and regulates leave, working hours (including overtime and work on Sundays/public holidays), employment contracts, legislation regarding deductions, pay slips and termination.

For more information on employee matters or to download a payslip template (Form BCEA4), visit the department of labour website. There are other online platforms that provide payslip templates for free, make use of these. 

Source: Department of Labour