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New Employer? Your First 30 Days, Step by Step
⚡ Quick answer A new employer’s first 30 days have a fixed order: register with SARS for PAYE within 21 days of becoming an employer, register for UIF on both the SARS and Labour sides, register with the Compensation Fund within 7 days, sign the contract before day one, and run the first payroll with the EMP201 by the 7th of the following month. Becoming a new employer triggers a set of statutory clocks that do not wait for you to find your feet. Some run for 21 days, one for only 7 — and they start the moment your first employee does. The good news: thirty days is enough…
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The 7-Day Incident Reporting Rule Most Employers Learn Too Late
⚡ Quick answer Section 24 of the OHS Act requires employers to report serious workplace incidents to the Department of Employment & Labour within 7 days: deaths, unconsciousness, lost limbs, injuries likely to be fatal or permanently disabling, and incapacity of 14 days or more. The scene of a fatal or serious incident must be preserved until the inspector allows it to be disturbed. This OHS report is separate from the COIDA injury claim — both are due, on parallel 7-day clocks, to different offices. There is a legal clock that starts the moment something goes seriously wrong at work — and most employers have never heard of it until…
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The COIDA 7-Day Rule: The Shortest Deadline in Employer Law
⚡ Quick answer The COIDA registration deadline is 7 days from your first employee’s start date — the shortest registration deadline in South African employer law. Section 80 of COIDA requires every employer, including households, to register with the Compensation Fund within that window. In practice: start the registration when the offer is accepted, not after the start date. Late registration is fixable (back-assessments plus penalties), but an injury in the gap is the scenario to avoid — the Fund can recover the entire claim cost from an unregistered employer. Every employer registration has a deadline, but only one is measured in single digits: the COIDA registration deadline of 7…
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An Employee Was Injured Today: The First-24-Hours Protocol
⚡ Quick answer When an employee is injured at work, the first 24 hours follow a fixed protocol: get medical attention immediately, make the scene safe (and preserve it if the injury is serious), record the incident with witnesses and photos, notify the family where relevant, and start the two reporting clocks — the COIDA claim to the Compensation Fund within 7 days, and for serious incidents the OHS report to the Department inspector within 7 days. Keep paying the employee; for temporary total disablement the employer pays the first three months and claims it back from the Fund. The day an employee injured at work is the day your…
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Letter of Good Standing Expired Before a Tender? The Rescue Drill
⚡ Quick answer A Letter of Good Standing that has expired or been refused almost always traces to one of three causes: an unfiled Return of Earnings, an unpaid assessment (often an estimated one raised after a missed return), or records sitting under the wrong entity. The rescue drill: pull your Compensation Fund account status, identify the exact gap, file the outstanding ROEs, let assessments be corrected, pay or arrange, then re-request the letter. Small gaps fix in days; multi-year gaps take weeks — start before the tender advert, not the week it closes. The tender closes Friday and the Letter of Good Standing is expired, refused, or was never…
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COIDA ROE Season Opens 1 April: What to Prepare Now
⚡ Quick answer COIDA ROE season runs from 1 April to 31 May every year: every employer registered with the Compensation Fund must file a Return of Earnings declaring actual employee earnings for the year 1 March to end February, plus an estimate for the year ahead. Prepare three numbers before April: total earnings per employee for the assessment year, your headcount, and a realistic estimate for the coming year. Miss the window and the Fund estimates your earnings upward, adds penalties, and suspends your Letter of Good Standing. Every April, the COIDA ROE lands on the same desks as the EMP501 — and every May, a slice of employers…
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Your Domestic Worker Needs a Payslip and UIF — Here Is the How
⚡ Quick answer If your domestic worker works 24 hours or more a month, you are an employer with legal duties: a written contract or particulars, a monthly payslip (even for cash wages), UIF registration on uFiling with monthly declarations (2% of wages — 1% from them, 1% from you), and COIDA registration with the Compensation Fund. The UIF cost on a R4,500 wage is R90 a month total. Admin Boss registers domestic employers for UIF (R450) and COIDA (R350). The household is South Africa’s most informal workplace — and the one where employer obligations are most often simply unknown. If a domestic worker helps in your home more than…
