Absenteeism Glossary: HR Absence Terms for South African Employers

Abscondment (also called desertion) is when an employee stays away from work, without contact, for long enough that it is reasonable to conclude they do not intend to come back. No statute defines it for the private sector, so employers usually treat it as misconduct and still try to contact the employee and hold a hearing before dismissing. In the public service, section 17(3)(a)(i) of the Public Service Act, 1994 deems an employee who is absent without permission for more than one calendar month to be dismissed (this does not apply to educators or members of the services). Abscondment differs from ordinary absenteeism, where the employee intends to return.

Read more: Absconding vs absenteeism in South Africa. Source: Public Service Act, 1994, s17

An absence threshold, or trigger point, is the level of absence at which an employer takes a set step, such as a return-to-work interview or a review meeting. It can be an absenteeism rate, a number of spells in a period, or a Bradford Factor score. Thresholds belong in the absenteeism policy and should be applied the same way to everyone, with room for disability and known medical conditions. In Appsentia, each company sets a target absenteeism rate between 1.5% and 5%.

Read more: Writing an absenteeism policy

Absenteeism is unplanned absence from scheduled work, most often sick leave and unauthorised absence. Planned leave, such as annual leave, maternity or parental leave and public holidays, is normally left out. The word is often used for frequent short absences in particular, but it covers any unplanned absence whatever the cause. Most South African absenteeism measures are built on sick leave because payroll records it most reliably.

Read more: How to reduce absenteeism

The absenteeism rate is the share of scheduled working time lost to absence, shown as a percentage. The usual formula is days absent divided by available working days, multiplied by 100. Available days exclude non-working days, public holidays and planned leave. For example, 4 sick days out of 220 available days is a rate of 1.8%.

Read more: Absenteeism rate calculator, Absenteeism benchmarks in South Africa

Annual leave is paid holiday leave. Under BCEA s20(2), an employee is entitled to at least 21 consecutive days of annual leave for each 12-month leave cycle, or by agreement 1 day for every 17 days worked or 1 hour for every 17 hours worked. It is planned leave, so it is normally left out of absenteeism rates. Sick days taken directly before or after annual leave are sometimes reviewed as a pattern.

Read more: Annual leave in South Africa. Source: BCEA s20

Appsentia's attendance risk score is a number from 0 to 100 for each employee, based on sick leave in the last 90 days. It adds four parts: frequency against the company average (up to 30 points), Monday and Friday concentration (up to 25), the trend over the last 30 days (up to 25) and comparison with the department (up to 20). Under 34 is low, 34 to 66 is medium and 67 or more is high. It is a signal to review, not a finding of misconduct.

Read more: How Appsentia works

A bargaining council is a body formed by employers' organisations and trade unions in a sector and registered under the Labour Relations Act, 1995. Its collective agreements can be extended to all employers and employees in that sector and area. These agreements often set leave terms that differ from the BCEA, such as more sick leave or different proof rules. Check whether a bargaining council agreement applies before relying on the BCEA defaults.

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 sets minimum terms of employment in South Africa. Its leave provisions cover annual leave (s20), sick leave (s22 to s24), maternity and parental leave (s25 to s25C) and family responsibility leave (s27). A contract, collective agreement or sectoral determination can give more than the BCEA, and in some cases vary its terms within limits. The earnings threshold excludes higher earners from some provisions, such as overtime, but not from the leave provisions.

Read more: South African labour law on absenteeism

The Bradford Factor is a score that weights frequent short absences more heavily than a few long ones. The formula is S x S x D, where S is the number of spells of absence and D is the total days absent, usually over a rolling 52 weeks. One 10-day absence scores 10, while ten 1-day absences score 1,000. It is a UK measure with no legal standing in South Africa, and it should not be applied to absence linked to disability or a known medical condition without adjustment.

Read more: Bradford Factor calculator, The Bradford Factor in South Africa

The Code of Good Practice: Dismissal sets out how employers should handle dismissals for misconduct, incapacity (poor performance and ill health or injury) and operational requirements. A new Code was published on 4 September 2025 (Notice 3470, Government Gazette 53294) and replaced Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act. Anyone deciding whether a dismissal was fair must take a relevant code of good practice into account (LRA s188(2)). For ill health, the employer must investigate the extent of the incapacity and consider alternatives short of dismissal.

Read more: Incapacity or misconduct?. Source: Code of Good Practice: Dismissal, Notice 3470 of 2025

The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act 130 of 1993 covers employees injured or made ill by their work. For temporary total disablement, the employer pays compensation for the first three months and is then reimbursed by the Compensation Fund or mutual association (COIDA s47). Compensation is generally 75% of earnings, up to a maximum set in Schedule 4. BCEA s24 says the sick leave sections do not apply to absence caused by an occupational injury or disease covered by COIDA, except for any period for which no compensation is payable.

Read more: Injury on duty (IOD). Source: BCEA s24

These terms sort absence by whether the employee is to blame. Culpable absence is within the employee's control, such as staying away without permission or lying about being sick, and is dealt with as misconduct. Non-culpable absence is genuine, such as illness or injury, and is dealt with as incapacity, through support and investigation rather than discipline. South African law does not use these exact words, but the same split runs through the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal.

Read more: Incapacity or misconduct?

Days lost per employee is total days of absence in a period divided by the average number of employees. It is easy to compare across years and with published figures, as long as both use the same definition of absence and the same headcount. Some reports divide by all employees and others only by employees who took leave, which gives a much higher number. Always check which one a benchmark uses.

Read more: Absenteeism benchmarks in South Africa

An Employee Assistance Programme is a confidential counselling and support service paid for by the employer and usually run by an outside provider. It typically covers personal, family, financial, legal and mental health problems through a phone line and a set number of counselling sessions. Referring an employee to the EAP is a common first step when absence may have a cause outside work. The employer normally receives only anonymous usage reports, not what an employee discussed.

Read more: GBV and sick leave

Under BCEA s27, employees who have worked for an employer for more than four months and work at least four days a week get 3 days' paid family responsibility leave in each annual leave cycle. It can be used when the employee's child is sick, or when a spouse or life partner, parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling dies. The employer may ask for reasonable proof, unused days lapse at the end of the cycle, and a collective agreement can change the days and circumstances. The birth of a child was removed as a ground in 2018, when parental leave was introduced.

Read more: Family responsibility leave in South Africa. Source: BCEA s27

The frequency rate measures how often absence happens rather than how long it lasts. A common formula is the number of spells of absence in a period divided by the number of employees, sometimes multiplied by 100. A high frequency rate with a low absenteeism rate usually means many short absences, which are harder to plan around than a few long ones.

Full-time equivalent converts part-time and full-time staff into a common count. One FTE is one person working full-time hours, and a person working half the full-time hours counts as 0.5 FTE. Using FTE instead of headcount stops part-time staff from distorting absence rates and days lost per employee.

Incapacity is a reason for dismissal that is not the employee's fault. It covers poor work performance and ill health or injury. Before dismissing for ill health, an employer must investigate how serious the condition is and how long it is likely to last, and consider alternatives such as adapted duties, other work or more time off. Absence caused by genuine illness is dealt with as incapacity, not misconduct.

Read more: Incapacity or misconduct?

An injury on duty is a work-related injury or occupational disease covered by COIDA. The employer must report it to the Compensation Fund or its mutual association, and time off for it is compensated under COIDA instead of coming out of the employee's sick leave (BCEA s24). Record IOD absence separately so it does not inflate sick leave figures or trigger absence warnings.

Read more: COIDA

Lost time rate is another name for the absenteeism rate: the percentage of available working time lost to absence. It is usually calculated in hours where shift lengths vary and in days where they do not. Health and safety reporting uses a different measure, the lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR), which counts injuries that cause time off against the number of hours worked.

Under BCEA s23(1), an employer may refuse to pay sick leave if the employee is absent for more than two consecutive days, or on more than two occasions in an eight-week period, and does not produce a medical certificate when asked. The certificate must state that the employee was unable to work for the duration of the absence because of sickness or injury. It must be issued and signed by a medical practitioner, or another person certified to diagnose and treat patients and registered with a professional council established by an Act of Parliament (s23(2)).

Read more: Medical certificate requirements. Source: BCEA s23

Misconduct is a breach of a workplace rule by an employee who is at fault. Absence-related misconduct includes unauthorised absence, failing to follow the call-in procedure, abscondment, and abusing sick leave, for example with a false certificate. It is dealt with through the disciplinary process, normally progressive (counselling, then warnings) except in serious cases, under the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal.

Read more: Absenteeism warning letter templates, Sick leave abuse

A Monday and Friday pattern is a high share of an employee's short sick absences falling next to the weekend. It can point to sick leave being used to extend weekends, but it can also reflect childcare, transport, shift changes or a health condition. A pattern is a reason for a conversation, not proof of abuse. Appsentia counts it in the risk score only once an employee has 3 or more sick absences in 90 days.

Read more: Monday and Friday absenteeism patterns

Occupational health is the branch of health care that deals with the effect of work on health and of health on work. Occupational health practitioners do pre-employment and periodic medicals, assess fitness for work, manage injuries on duty, and advise on adapted duties after a long illness. Employers have duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 and, in mining, the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996. An occupational health assessment is often part of an ill-health incapacity process.

BCEA s25 to s25C provide for maternity leave (four consecutive months), parental leave (10 consecutive days), adoption leave and commissioning parental leave. In Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour [2025] ZACC 20, the Constitutional Court found these sections unconstitutional because they treat parents differently. It gave Parliament 36 months to amend the law and, in the meantime, the parents together are entitled to four months and ten days, divided as they agree, with protection for the birth mother around the birth. The law will change again when Parliament amends the Act, so check the current position before applying it.

Source: Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr summary of the Van Wyk judgment

A payday pattern is sick absence that falls on payday or the working day after it. Weekly-paid staff can show it every week and monthly-paid staff around month-end. It is often read as spending over a payday weekend, but it can also reflect errands that can only be done once wages are paid, such as paying debts or travelling home.

Read more: Reading absence patterns fairly

Presenteeism is when employees come to work but cannot work at their normal level because of illness, injury, stress or other problems. It does not show up in leave records, so it is usually estimated through surveys. Strict absence policies can increase it, for example when sick employees come in to avoid a warning and spread illness to colleagues.

Public holiday adjacency is sick absence on the working day immediately before or after a public holiday, which lengthens the break. South Africa has 12 public holidays under the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994, and when one falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is a public holiday (s2(1)). Appsentia checks sick absences against the South African public holiday calendar for each year.

A return-to-work interview is a short, private conversation between a manager and an employee on their first day back after an absence. It checks that the employee is fit to work, records the reason for the absence, and asks whether anything at work or at home is affecting attendance. Done consistently after every absence, it gives managers early warning of problems and creates a record for any later incapacity or disciplinary process.

Read more: Return-to-work interviews in South Africa

A sectoral determination is a set of minimum employment conditions issued by the Minister of Employment and Labour under Chapter 8 of the BCEA for a specific sector, such as domestic work, farm work, hospitality or private security. It can vary the BCEA's basic conditions for that sector, including leave. Check whether one applies before applying the general BCEA rules.

Shrinkage is a contact centre term for the share of paid agent time when agents are not available to handle calls or messages. It includes unplanned shrinkage (absence and lateness) and planned shrinkage (leave, training, meetings and breaks). Workforce planners add shrinkage to staffing forecasts, so higher absence means more agents must be rostered to meet the same service level. In retail, shrinkage means stock loss, which is unrelated.

Read more: Absenteeism in contact centres

Sick leave is paid time off when an employee cannot work because of illness or injury. The BCEA minimum is the number of days the employee would normally work in six weeks, over a 36-month sick leave cycle (s22(2)), which is 30 days for a five-day week. In the first six months of employment, the employee earns 1 day of paid sick leave for every 26 days worked (s22(3)). Collective agreements and contracts often give more.

Read more: Sick leave in South Africa, Sick leave calculator. Source: BCEA s22

The sick leave cycle is the 36-month period of employment with the same employer over which the BCEA sick leave entitlement applies (s22(1)). The first cycle starts when employment starts, and each new cycle starts when the previous one ends. The BCEA does not require unused sick leave to carry over into the next cycle. Each employee's cycle has its own start date, so cycles across a workforce do not line up.

Read more: Sick leave in South Africa. Source: BCEA s22

A spell of absence is one continuous period of absence, however many days it lasts. Three days off with flu from Monday to Wednesday is one spell of three days. Counting spells as well as days matters because many one-day spells disrupt work more than one long spell, and measures such as the Bradford Factor and the frequency rate depend on it. Weekends and public holidays inside an absence normally do not split it into two spells.

A time and attendance system records when employees start and finish work, usually through biometric readers, cards or a mobile app, and compares this with rosters. It shows late coming, early leaving and no-shows. Absence analytics is different: it looks at leave records over time to find rates, patterns and cost. Appsentia is an absence analytics tool and does not read clocking data.

Read more: Absenteeism management software

The Unemployment Insurance Fund pays illness benefits to contributors who cannot work because of illness for 7 days or more (Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001, s20). The 7-day threshold was introduced by the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act, 2016; older sources quote 14 days. Paid sick leave is taken into account, so the benefit plus sick pay cannot be more than the employee's normal remuneration (s21(2)). Employees usually claim once their paid sick leave is used up.

Source: Unemployment Insurance Act s20

Unauthorised absence is time off work without permission and without a valid reason, including failing to follow the employer's call-in or reporting procedure. It is also called AWOL (absent without leave). It is misconduct, normally handled through progressive discipline unless it is long or repeated. It differs from abscondment, where the absence is long enough to show the employee does not intend to return.

Read more: Absconding vs absenteeism

A wellness programme is a set of employer-funded activities aimed at employee health, such as health screenings, vaccination days, fitness initiatives, financial and mental health education, and chronic disease management. It is broader than an EAP, which deals with individual problems in confidence. Employers often compare absence before and after a programme, but other changes at the same time make the effect hard to separate.