What to Do When Your Domestic Worker Calls in Sick (South Africa)

What to Do When Your Domestic Worker Calls in Sick (South Africa)

It's 6:47 on a Tuesday morning and your helper's name pops up on your phone screen. You haven't opened it yet and you're already mentally preparing to shift your entire diary around.

She's sick, so that means your client call at nine and the meeting you moved twice already, just changed shape entirely, and you haven't even had coffee yet.

This is one of the most common scenarios for working moms in South Africa, and somehow we still end up scrambling in the moment. How many leave days does she have? Do I need to request a doctor's note? God I wish I could just call HR and have them tell me what to do.

So let's slow that moment down. Knowing roughly what's expected when this inevitably happens turns that Tuesday spiral into a two-minute decision, and the list is shorter than you'd think.

The feeling underneath that scramble

When a domestic worker calls in sick, most employers feel three things at once: real concern for someone they care about, a logistical panic that has you calculating the next six hours, and — if you're honest — a flicker of annoyance about having to rearrange everything you worked so hard to set in place.

That flicker is the sound of your home losing its one structural support for the day. The work your domestic worker quietly carries for your household — the beds, the lunchboxes, the load of washing that was going in this morning — lands back on your list the moment she can't come in. That's what happens when one person holds up a significant part of your home's daily functioning.

Relief comes from knowing what to do next and thankfully, the list is short.

What the BCEA says about sick leave

South African domestic workers are entitled to paid sick leave under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. The entitlement runs in three-year blocks. Over each block, a domestic worker on a 5-day week gets 30 days of paid sick leave — the equivalent of six weeks of ordinary working days. On a six-day week it's 36 days over the same 3 years.

There's one exception worth knowing about. In the first 6 months of a new job, sick leave builds up gradually, at one day for every 26 days worked. The full 3-year allowance opens up after that.

What that means on an ordinary Tuesday: if she's past her 6-month mark and hasn't been ill much, she almost certainly has paid sick leave available. So you pay her as normal. Nothing comes off her pay. It's a paid absence, the same way you'd be paid if you were too ill to work.

One thing to keep separate. If she was hurt while working — a fall on your stairs, a burn in your kitchen — that isn't a sick day and it shouldn't be deducted from her sick leave balance. It runs through a different system and is worth looking in to.

If she's used up her sick leave within the current three years, you're not obliged to pay for any days over the total. You're also not allowed to take that day's pay out of money you already owe her for days she has worked. Those are two separate things.

Do you need a medical certificate?

This is the question that trips up more employers than anything else about sick leave. The reassuring answer is that for most single sick days there's nothing to work out. She's paid from her allowance, and the certificate question never comes up at all.

Where it does come up, there's one test, and it has three parts. All three have to be true before you can treat a sick day as unpaid because a certificate is missing.

First, the absence has to qualify — more than two days in a row, or more than two separate absences in an 8-week stretch.

Second, you have to have actually asked her for a certificate.

Third, she has to have been unable (or unwilling) to produce one.

Miss any one of the three and the day stays paid.

A reasonable employer doesn't turn the certificate into a gatekeeping exercise. Most domestic workers don't have easy access to a private doctor. A clinic visit means a queue, a taxi, a morning or a half-day spent waiting. If a certificate is being asked for to make sick leave harder to claim, that's worth sitting down to reflect on.

What about unpaid sick days?

If her sick leave balance is zero, you don't pay for that day. Note it on her payslip as an unpaid absence, so the record is clear and she can see it.

What you should do to prepare for next time

When the message comes, here's what to do:

Check how much paid sick leave she has left. If you've been keeping payroll records — in a notebook or through the app — you'll know how many sick days she's used. If she's within her allowance, she gets paid for the day. If she isn't, it's an unpaid absence.

Let her rest. Don't ask her to come in "just for the morning" unless she offers. Someone who comes to work sick and then gets worse — or gets your household sick — costs you more than a day's leave.

Note it down. Paid or unpaid, log the date and the reason. That record is what tells you later whether this was her third absence in eight weeks, or whether it ran past a second day.

Follow up kindly. A short message to check in, if that's natural for your relationship. It costs you nothing and matters to someone who's unwell and probably worried about letting you down.

At the end of the month, mark the day correctly on her payslip. Paid from her allowance, or unpaid — either way, it's written down. Accurate records protect you both.

Why this is worth getting right before the message arrives

The families who stay calm about sick days worked the answer out in advance. That's the whole difference.

That means knowing roughly how much paid sick leave she has left. It means having enough of a payroll record to answer that question in under two minutes. And it means knowing what you owe her, so you're not shortchanging her out of confusion or paying out money you didn't owe because you were too rushed to check.

It also means having a realistic household contingency, worked out on a calm day. If one person being away for one day collapses the whole operation, that's worth knowing now, rather than at 6:47 on a Tuesday when you can't think straight.

Most domestic workers take their work seriously and wouldn't call in sick unless they needed to. The relationship deserves that same seriousness back: the right pay for the right circumstance, and a system that doesn't need either of you to guess.

This post is general guidance, not legal advice. If something bigger comes up — a dispute, or a question about her contract — talk to someone who does labour law properly.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do I have to pay my domestic worker when she calls in sick?

Yes, if she has paid sick leave left in her current 3-year period. A domestic worker on a 5-day week gets the equivalent of 6 weeks of paid sick leave every 3 years. If her allowance is used up, the absent day is unpaid — but you can't take money out of pay she's already earned for days she has worked.

2. How many sick days is a domestic worker entitled to in South Africa?

A domestic worker on a 5-day week gets 30 days of paid sick leave over three years. On a 6-day week it's 36 days over the same period. In the first 6 months of employment it builds up gradually, at one day for every 26 days worked.

3. Can I ask for a medical certificate every time my domestic worker calls in sick?

You can ask whenever you like; however, reflect on why exactly you are asking. What the rules control is when a missing certificate is allowed to affect her pay, and that only applies once she's been off more than two days in a row, or more than twice in an eight-week stretch. For a single sick day, a certificate makes no difference to what you owe her.

4. What happens if my domestic worker has used all her sick leave?

The absent day is unpaid. Note it on her payslip as an unpaid absence so the record is clear.

5. Can I deduct a sick day from my domestic worker's pay if she can't produce a certificate?

Only if all three of these are true: the absence qualified (more than two days in a row, or more than twice in eight weeks), you actually asked her for a certificate, and she didn't produce one. If you never asked, you can't treat the day as unpaid on that basis.

6. What should I put on the payslip when my domestic worker takes a sick day?

Note the date, and whether the day was paid from her sick leave or unpaid because her allowance had run out. If you're adjusting her pay for an unpaid absence, that should be visible on the payslip rather than absorbed quietly into a smaller total.

7. Does sick leave reset every year?

No. Sick leave runs in 3-year blocks, so it carries across calendar years. This catches a lot of employers out. It isn't an annual allowance that starts fresh each January.

Sources

Republic of South Africa. Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, section 22 (Sick leave) and section 23 (Proof of incapacity). Consolidated text updated to 1 May 2026. Available at: https://www.saflii.org/za/legis/consol_act/bcoea1997309/

Republic of South Africa. Sectoral Determination 7: Domestic Worker Sector, Part E (Leave). The determination that covers domestic employment specifically. Available at: https://www.saflii.org/za/legis/consol_reg/sd7dws457/

Try The House Keeper — South Africa's payroll app built for families who employ domestic workers. It tracks sick leave, paid sick days, and payslips so that when the 6:47 message comes, you already know the answer. Sign up for a free account today at thehousekeeperapp.com.