What Dept of Labour is for
Employing people brings Labour jobs with it — a UIF declaration every month, a UI-19 whenever someone joins or leaves, and an annual COIDA Return of Earnings. Dept of Labour gathers them into one place so you can see, at a glance, what is due and what you owe. The SARS side — EMP201, the EMP501 reconciliation and the IRP5 figures — is under SARS → Employees’ tax. Dept of Labour is included from the Team plan.
Worklog works the figures out, gives you a PDF and keeps your own filing record; it does not submit anything. The actual filing still happens on uFiling and the Compensation Fund's ROE Online.
Returns and declarations
On the Overview, the Declarations & returns list shows every Labour return, when it is due and its status tag. Tap a row to open its tab — the UI-19 row opens its note and a link to uFiling instead. The UIF row carries this month’s contributions, and the COIDA row the earnings to report so far this year.
- UI-19 — whenever someone joins, leaves, or their hours change. Not a monthly cycle. Your Staff Register holds the details uFiling asks for: ID number, start date, and the date and reason employment ended.
- Letter of Good Standing — issued by the Compensation Fund after your Return of Earnings is filed and assessed. Required for government tenders and most construction sites.
- UIF declaration — monthly, on uFiling. Plus a UI-19 whenever someone joins or leaves your business.
- COIDA — Return of Earnings (form CF-2A, formerly W.As.8). Filed once a year on the Compensation Fund's ROE Online system, inside the window the Fund announces each year — for 2025/26 earnings it was 1 April to 30 June 2026. Until a year's window is announced, the row shows the closing date it can be expected on, marked (expected) — and never calls the return overdue on that guess. A late return costs a 10% penalty on the assessment. Worklog shows the earnings to report — your gross wages for the assessment year so far (1 March to end February), each employee capped at the OID maximum, contractors left out (a contractor you have since removed from the Staff Register stays left out, as does their pay on the UIF declaration). A year that ended before your books began, and before your first pay run, is not called overdue once the Fund’s window for it has closed. A year that has ended with no wages in Worklog (wages paid outside it, or a nil return) can still be marked filed once you have filed it on ROE Online; it is recorded as R0 earnings. The Return of Earnings can only be marked filed for a year that has ended: a year still running shows the wages so far, with no Mark button. The screen waits for the pay runs, the staff register and the tax rates (the year's OID maximum) before it works anything out or offers Mark, so a contractor's pay is never counted as an employee's and no figure is worked at a maximum that hasn't loaded, and it says so if any of them can't be read. A login that can't view the pay runs or the Staff Register is shown no earnings there (the card says so instead), and none on the SARS and Dept of Labour overview rows. If the earnings Worklog works out for a year you have marked filed later differ from what it recorded when you marked it (a pay run added, corrected or voided, say), a note under the ✅ says the earnings now differ from what was filed (both figures) and that an amended Return of Earnings may be needed; once you have filed the corrected return, undo the filing and mark it again.
The Acts say the monthly declaration is due before the seventh day of the month (Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act section 10(3), Unemployment Insurance Act section 56(3)), so by the 6th, and the payment by the 7th (section 8(1), and section 9(1)(b) for an employer not registered for PAYE or SDL); either moves back to the last business day when it falls on a weekend or public holiday (Tax Administration Act section 244(1)). The Department's form says “by the seventh”, and we found no ruling on “before”, so Worklog follows the Act's words. The UIF tab works out the month’s contributions — the employee’s 1% and the employer’s 1%, each capped at the monthly ceiling — one line per employee, the way uFiling is declared, and lets you mark the declaration filed once you have submitted it. A month that has ended with no one to declare in it shows the Mark button too, to record a nil declaration (as R0) — unless that month is from before your books began, or your login can't see Pay Run. Someone employed for under 24 hours in the month (hours paid and unpaid together) isn’t a contributor that month: Pay Run deducts no UIF for them, and the tab lists them below the declaration instead. The COIDA tab totals your gross wages for the assessment year (1 March to end February), capped at the OID maximum per employee, and lets you mark the Return of Earnings filed. EMP201 is a SARS return and lives under SARS → Employees’ tax:
- PAYE — the employee tax off this month's pay runs.
- Less: ETI claimed — the Employment Tax Incentive for qualifying younger staff, capped so it can only reduce PAYE down to zero, never below.
- UIF — the employee and employer shares together.
- SDL — the skills levy, shown only if it applies to you.
The SDL nudge
SDL (the Skills Development Levy) only becomes payable once your payroll is big enough. If your payroll over the last 12 months, worked out for a full year, passes the SDL registration threshold and you have not switched SDL on yet, a ⚠️ SDL may now apply nudge appears above the returns list.
If you have no payroll yet
Until you have staff or pay runs, a card headed "💼 No payroll yet" names the returns the list cannot yet show you: add employees in the Staff Register and run a Pay Run, and this page then tracks what you owe Labour and the Compensation Fund — the UIF declaration each month, a UI-19 whenever someone joins or leaves, and the COIDA Return of Earnings once a year.