Yes — under the BCEA, unused annual leave can lapse. Employers aren't required to let leave carry forward indefinitely, but there are rules about how and when it can expire.
Annual leave accrues over a 12-month leave cycle. If an employee doesn't take their leave within 6 months after the end of that cycle, the BCEA permits the employer to treat it as lapsed. In practice, that means an employee generally has up to 18 months from when leave started accruing to use it before it can expire.
Leave can only lapse if the employer gave the employee a genuine opportunity to take it. If an employer consistently refused leave requests or made it impossible to take leave, the CCMA can find that the leave shouldn't have lapsed and order it be paid out or granted. Employers carry the burden of showing employees were able to take their leave.
The 6-month expiry is a BCEA minimum protection for employees — an employer's leave policy or contract can allow leave to carry over for longer (or indefinitely), but can never be less generous than the BCEA minimum.
Leave that hasn't yet lapsed is still owed to the employee — including on termination. Only leave that has genuinely lapsed under the 6-month rule (and where the employee had a fair opportunity to take it) is not payable. See our Final Payslip Guide for how leave payouts work on termination.
Most employers avoid relying on leave expiry as a way to reduce leave liability — it creates disputes and reduces goodwill. Instead, actively encourage employees to book leave well before any expiry point, and track balances so nobody is surprised.
Yes. Under the BCEA, annual leave not taken within 6 months of the end of the annual leave cycle in which it accrued lapses, unless the employer's policy or contract is more generous.
The employer carries the burden of showing the employee had a genuine opportunity to take the leave before it can be treated as lapsed.
No — a policy can be more generous (longer carry-over) but never less generous than the BCEA minimum.
TSS Payroll tracks accrual, expiry and payouts automatically, so no one is caught out by lapsed leave.
No credit card required · Cancel anytime · 30-day free trial