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What happens when employment ends?

How to handle resignation, termination, or retrenchment legally and fairly.

🔚 When does employment end?

Employment between an employer and a domestic worker can end in a few ways:

  1. Resignation -  The employee chooses to leave

  2. Termination -  The employer ends the working relationship

  3. Desertion -  The employee stops coming to work without notice

  4. Retrenchment -  The role is no longer needed due to financial or operational reasons

  5. Mutual Termination -  Both Employer and Employee agree to ending the working relationship.

AskMandla helps you manage this process legally, respectfully, and with all documents in place.

📅 Notice periods

South African labour law requires written notice:

Length of Service Required Notice
Less than 6 months 1 week
6–12 months 2 weeks
More than 12 months 4 weeks
 

⚠️ No notice is needed in cases of serious misconduct or dismissal after a disciplinary process.

 

When dismissing an Employee for their Ill-Health or due to Retrenchment, you will have to pay a notice period.

🧾 What does AskMandla do when you end employment?

We’ll help you:

  1. Confirm the reason for termination

  2. Generate the correct termination letter

  3. Calculate final pay (including leave due)

  4. Update the payslip

  5. Optionally complete and share a UI19 form for UIF claims

📲 All of this is done via WhatsApp - no paperwork required.

💸 Final payout

When employment ends, the employee is entitled to:

  • Salary for all days worked

  • Payment for unused leave (if employed longer than 4 months)

  • Any deductions still owed (e.g. unpaid loans, damage to property, if agreed)

⚖️ If the employee owes notice (e.g. they leave without giving proper notice), the employer may deduct this from final pay if stated in the contract.

📄 UIF: What must be submitted?

To help the employee claim UIF, we’ll:

  • Generate a UI19 form

  • Populate details like last working day, reason for termination, and leave payout

  • Send a WhatsApp link to download the file

We can also provide help on where and how to submit this to the Department of Labour.

🚫 What if the employee disappears (desertion)?

If the employee is absent for 5 or more consecutive working days without contacting you:

  • This may be classified as desertion

  • AskMandla can issue a desertion letter

  • Employment may be terminated with no further salary due after 5 days

We’ll help you document the steps correctly to protect both parties.

If the employee returns after you have ended their employment for desertion, you must hold a formal enquiry to confirm whether the dismissal stands. If the employee was absent due to legitimate reasons like being in hospital or prison, you may need to reinstate them, and the previous dismissal for desertion will not be valid.

📁 Record-keeping

All contracts, warnings, payslips, and termination letters are stored in your AskMandla profile and can be retrieved anytime.

🧾 You’ll always have a clean paper trail.

💡 Tip: Treat terminations with dignity

Even when things end, keeping communication respectful and legal helps avoid disputes, ensures UIF eligibility, and protects your reputation as a fair employer.