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Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 (Act No. 75 of 1997)

Chapter Three : Leave

25C. Commissioning parental leave

 

(1) An employee, who is a commissioning parent in a surrogate motherhood agreement is, subject to subsection (6), entitled to—
(a) commissioning parental leave of at least ten weeks consecutively; or
(b) the parental leave referred to in section 25A.

 

(2) An employee may commence commissioning parental leave on the date a child is born as a result of a surrogate motherhood agreement.

 

(3) An employee must notify an employer in writing, unless the employee is unable to do so, of the date on which the employee intends to—
(a) commence commissioning parental leave; and
(b) return to work after commissioning parental leave.

 

(4) Notification in terms of subsection (3) must be given—
(a) at least one month before a child is expected to be born as a result of a surrogate motherhood agreement; or
(b) if it is not reasonably practicable to do so, as soon as is reasonably practicable.

 

(5) The payment of commissioning parental benefits will be determined by the Minister, subject to the provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 2001 (Act No. 63 of 2001).

 

(6) If a surrogate motherhood agreement has two commissioning parents, one of the commissioning parents may apply for commissioning parental leave and the other commissioning parent may apply for the parental leave referred to in section 25A: Provided that the selection of choice must be exercised at the option of the two commissioning parents.

 

(7) In this section, unless the context otherwise indicates—

 

"commissioning parent"

has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Children’s Act, 2005 (Act No. 38 of 2005); and

 

"surrogate motherhood agreement"

has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Children’s Act, 2005 (Act No. 38 of 2005).

 

[Section 25C inserted by section 3 of Notice No. 1305, GG 42062, dated 27 November 2018 (Labour Laws Amendment Act, 2018)]