A record of a counselling for ill-health confirms to an Employee the Time, Date and Place where the counselling will take place. It confirms the alleged deviations where the Employee is allegedly falling short from required standards of work, KPI’s and achievable output requirements owing to Ill Health. When incapacity is owing to ill health the employer needs to comply with the requirements in Items 10 and 11 of the Code of Good Practice – Dismissal and noted in the Labour Relations Act, Act 66 of 1995 as amended. The aim of counselling for ill-health would be to determine if the Employees’ work circumstances, work requirements or the workplace can be adapted. It aims to determine the severity of illness and/or disability and if the Employee can be replaced in the short term or not.

A Serious Written Deviation Warning Form is issued to an employee following a formal or informal counselling to place on record that the Employer discussed a deviation with the Employee. It follows on a Written Deviation Warning and indicates more serious action to follow in the case of continued non-conformance. The form may instruct the Employee which processes to implement to better performance/output requirements or standards or in the event of issue related to ill health, how the Employee should timely communicate situation for intervention to the Employer.