Payroll

What to Do When an Employee Leaves: A South African Employer's Guide

Final pay, leave payouts, notice periods, the certificate of service and the UI-19: what South African employers must do when employment ends.

Updated 2026-07-30

An employee leaving, whether they resigned, were dismissed, or got retrenched, isn't finished the day they hand back their laptop. A handful of obligations kick in right then, and most of them have nothing to do with how the relationship ended.

What you owe on the way out

Whatever the reason for the termination, you owe salary up to and including the employee's last actual working day. Resignation, dismissal, retrenchment: the obligation to settle up doesn't change with the reason, only the paperwork around it does.

Accrued annual leave goes the same way. Any leave an employee has built up and not used gets paid out with their final pay. It doesn't quietly expire, and it doesn't get argued away because they're leaving on bad terms. It's owed exactly the way unpaid salary is owed.

Notice is the third piece, and it scales with length of service: 1 week if they've worked for you for six months or less, 2 weeks if they've worked for you for more than six months but less than a year, and 4 weeks once they've passed the one-year mark. You can pay someone in lieu of notice instead of having them work it out, but the one thing you can't do is skip paying for it.

The two documents, and the one that gets forgotten

The BCEA requires a certificate of service on termination, whatever the reason. It's a short factual document: name, dates employed, job title, and pay at the point of leaving. It isn't a reference letter, and it doesn't need to say anything flattering, or anything at all, about how they performed. Every departing employee gets one, including the ones you were glad to see go.

Then there's the UI-19, which declares the termination to the UIF. This is separate from paying your monthly contribution, and it's the step that's easiest to forget precisely because nothing about your own payroll run seems to depend on it. It matters to the employee rather than to you: without it, their record with the fund doesn't reflect that they've stopped working for you, which can delay or block a claim at the exact moment they need one. Do it the same week you tell payroll, while the departure is still in front of you.

What happens after they're gone

You won't hand over a final IRP5 on their last day. It gets generated at the next EMP501 reconciliation, the same twice-yearly cycle that produces everyone else's certificate, so there's a real gap between the exit and that document existing. Worth saying to the person on their way out, so they aren't waiting for something that can't arrive yet.

The last step is the mechanical one: take them off the ongoing payroll, so they aren't accidentally paid again and so your monthly EMP201 figures reflect who's actually still employed.

Final pay, leave payouts and the UI-19 are exactly the kind of detail E·BIZI Pay tracks automatically, so an offboarding doesn't turn into cleanup work three months later.

Common questions

Do I owe notice pay if I dismiss someone for misconduct?

The standard notice scale applies regardless of who ended the contract, with summary dismissal for serious misconduct as a narrow exception under general principles. If you're relying on that exception, get advice on the specific case rather than assume no notice is owed.

What exactly goes on a certificate of service?

The basics only: the employee's name, when they started and left, what job they did, and what they were earning when they left. It isn't a reference and says nothing about performance or conduct.

What happens if I forget to submit the UI-19?

The UIF's record won't show that the person has stopped working for you. That can delay or block a benefit claim later, even though their contributions were paid correctly the whole time they worked for you.

When does a departing employee get their IRP5?

Not on their last day. It's generated at the next EMP501 reconciliation, the same twice-yearly cycle that produces everyone else's certificate, so there's a gap between them leaving and that document existing.