Newsflash: Confirmed! Maternity leave can now be split between parents
The Constitutional Court of South Africa today has ruled that both parents are entitled to share four months of parental leave between them equally. This ruling confirms a 2023 Gauteng High Court decision that certain provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) regarding maternity and parental leave were unconstitutional as they unfairly discriminated against fathers, adoptive parents, and commissioning parents by giving biological mothers four months of paid leave but fathers only 10 days.
The Court declared the current BCEA provisions unconstitutional because they treated parents differently based on gender, birth circumstances, or the mode of parenting (natural birth, adoption, or surrogacy). Importantly, the judgment allows parents — regardless of gender or biological relation — to share a total of four consecutive months of parental leave as they elect. The prior arrangement of four months for mothers plus 10 days for fathers is replaced with a shared four months’ parental leave.
We will provide more details once the full judgement has been released.
