A. NEW LEAVE DISPENSATION FOR NON-TEACHING PERSONNEL AT SCHOOLS/TRAINING INSTITUTIONS
1. The PSCBC adopted Resolution 15 of 2002 that amended the leave dispensation of non-teaching personnel based at institutional level as follows:
1.1 Non-teaching staff at schools and training institutions shall be entitled to 27 working days annual leave of which at least 22 days must be taken during the period for which a school/training institution closes for holidays. The remaining 5 days may be taken when the institution is in operation;
1.2 The annual leave entitlement should in these circumstances be regarded as the minimum. If an employee, however, is not required at the institution during the period(s) when the institution closes for holidays, an employee may utilise his/her annual leave entitlement and/or paid time off granted by the employer;
1.3 The head of the institution must ensure that his or her decisions are based on the principles of fairness and equality in determining the leave roster for the affected employees.

2. With due regard to the principles of fairness and equality-
2.1 Annual leave and holidays constituting time off should be planned and scheduled at the beginning of a leave cycle, i.e. during January each year.
2.2 The process of scheduling of annual leave should be initiated by the principal of an institution in collaboration with the employees concerned.
2.3 As for periods of time off during institution holidays (i.e. when learners are on vacation), the following should be taken into account:
2.3.1 If it is not required of an employee to perform specific tasks or to be available for other operational/service delivery requirements during the institution holidays, the head of the institution may not require of such an employee to report for duty;
2.3.2 attention should be given to activities/services that need to take place/be delivered during the institution holidays;
2.3.3 scheduling and presenting formal training for all non-teaching staff members during some of these periods, may be considered;
2.3.4 a roster of time off should be developed to grant each staff member a fair opportunity to time off in the event where certain activities are to take place/sevices have to be rendered during institution holidays;
2.3.5 tasks should as far as possible be rotated between non-teaching staff members. Where possible a minimum service delivery staff complement should be retained if their services are required during an institution holiday. It should be borne in mind that it is not necessary to retain the full staff complement if only a minimum service delivery staff is required.
2.3.6 It is important to ensure that non-teaching staff is retained for duty during institution holidays only for valid official duty.
2.3.7 Heads of institutions, at which a combination of courses are presented, e.g. semester and trimester courses, shall ensure that the annual leave and periods of time-off of non-teaching staff rendering a support service to the academic staff, are aligned to the dispensation applicable to the said academic staff.

3. LEAVE DISPENSATION FOR NURSING STAFF

The existing leave dispensation for nursing staff attached to ELSEN institutions remain unchanged.

4. DATE OF IMPLEMENTATION

The date of implementation of the above new leave dispensation is 1 January 2004.

B. OTHER LEAVE MATTERS
1. CAPPING OF LEAVE DURING TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

As a once off arrangement, the 50% leave entitlement, or any portion thereof, which was due to employees for the period 1 July 2000 to 31 December 2000, and which could not be utilised by some employees before 30 June 2001, will be added to the number of leave days which accrued prior to 1 July 2000 (capped leave).

2. MEDICAL CERTIFICATES: MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS

The definition of "medical practitioner" has been amended to read as follows:

"Practitioners shall, for this purpose include all practitioners as defined by the Health Professionals Council of South Africa and who are legally certified to diagnose and treat patients".

C.

GENERAL

All line managers/supervisors must ensure that the granting of vacation leave is well managed as it is the policy of the WCED that no unutilised vacation leave credits will be paid out. Furthermore line managers/supervisors must ensure that staff members do have enough vacation leave credits to cover the period of leave for which they apply before recommending the leave. All leave forms must be submitted promptly as the auditing of leave receive a very high priority from the Office of the Auditor-General. Your co-operation in this regard will be appreciated.

Apologies are offered for the Xhosa version of this circular which is not available yet. It will be issued shortly.

Kindly inform all your staff members about the contents of this circular.


SIGNED: G.J. ELLIOT
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2003:12:01