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Recording Maternity and Parental Leave / Long-Term Absence

In the case where an employee goes on maternity / adoption leave, commissioning parental leave, parental leave or long-term absence due to illness, you should not record this as leave on the system. Instead, you should end their service on the system or continue processing payslips as per normal, depending on the scenario. This help page outlines the various scenarios that could arise and the appropriate action to take on the system for each.

Recording unpaid leave

It is not correct to record unpaid leave on the leave calendar for these types of absences.

Scenario: The Employee Receives No Salary / Wage or a Partial Salary / Wage

When an employee goes on maternity / adoption leave, commissioning parental leave, parental leave or long-term absence due to illness and does not receive a salary or wage from the company, or receives a reduced salary or wage from the company, the employee will need to claim from the UIF. In these instances, their absence is recorded by ending their service on the system so that the company UIF Declaration and individual UI-19 and UI-2.7 forms can be correctly generated.

To end their service on the system:

  1. Go to Employees, and select the relevant employee.
  2. Click End Service.
  3. Enter their Last Day of Service (i.e. the last day at work before the long-term absence commences).

  4. Select the relevant UIF Status Code:

    "9 – Maternity/Adoption"; or

    "10 – Long-term leave due to illness (still employed)"; or

    "18 – Commissioning Parental"; or

    "19 – Parental"

  5. Tick the Paid During Temporary Absence box if the employee receives a partial payment while on leave. The system will then still generate payslips for the employee. If the employee receives no payment, leave it unticked.

  6. Click Save.

The UI-19 form and UI-2.7 form should be given to employees to assist them with claiming UIF. More information on Ending an Employee's Service is available here.

When the employee returns from maternity leave or another long-term absence

When the employee returns from maternity leave or another long-term absence, re-instate them on the system. Because they remained employed during their absence, SimplePay doesn't create a new service period when you re-instate them.

Draft payslips from before the absence

If you didn't tick Paid During Temporary Absence when you ended their service, you can re-instate them only once all their payslips from before the absence are finalised.

To re-instate the employee:

  1. Go to Employees, and select the relevant employee.
  2. Click Manage End of Service > Re-instate the Employee.
  3. Select their first day back at work in the From Date field.
  4. Click Save.

SimplePay generates the employee's next regular payslip for the period in which the From Date falls.

Expected return date vs actual return date

If the employee's return is postponed while they're still away, update their Expected return date as described on the Ending an Employee's Service help page. When they return, the From Date you enter to re-instate them replaces the Expected return date on their UI-2.7 form.

Scenario: Full Payment during Maternity, Parental, Commissioning Parental Leave / Long-term Illness

If you will be paying the employee their full salary during this period, you can simply continue to process their payslips normally. You should not record leave or end their service on the system. You can also add a payslip note to their salary item(s) to indicate a long-term absence.

More information on Payslip Notes is available here.