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PSIRA

The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) was established in terms of the Private Security Regulation Act to regulate and control the private security industry.

An example* of a contract pricing structure that could be received from this regulatory authority is the following:

*Please note: The above is only an example. You should use the information contained in your specific contract pricing structure received from PSIRA.

The next part of this article will explain how to use a template to set the above example up in SimplePay. More information about templates can be found in the following section:

Once you have created a template (as described in the Templates section linked to above), you can continue with the setup.

Basic Salary

  • Click on Add Normal Item > Basic Salary.
  • Leave the Hourly rate field blank because it will be determined by individual employees’ job grades (discussed below).
  • Check the boxes next to Don’t auto-pay public holidays and Enable input of number of shifts.
  • Under Sunday Pay, check the box next to Override Sunday Pay Rates.
  • Enter 1.5 in both the fields for Normally works (default: 1.5x) and Normally off (default: 2.0x).
  • Click Save.

Provident Fund

As there is a system item for provident funds, you can click Add Normal Item under Actions and then Provident Fund under Deduction. Then complete the information as follows:

  • Select “Fixed amount” next to Contribution Calculation.
  • Enter the following next to both Fixed Contribution by Employee and Fixed Contribution by Employer: “= normal_rate * 208 * 0.075”
    • The normal_rate variable will use the employee’s hourly rate.
    • The 208 = 48 (hours per week) x 4.3333 (average number of weeks in a month).
  • You can select the Beneficiary from the drop-down menu if you have already set up beneficiaries. To set up beneficiaries, go to Settings > Beneficiaries and click Add under the relevant fund.
  • Since no information is available that this a Defined Benefit (DB) or hybrid fund, you can leave the Category Factor field blank.
  • Click Save.

Please note: if you haven’t set up how employees’ RFI should be determined, the provident fund contributions will not be calculated on their payslips. To set this up, follow these steps:

  • Click on Add Normal Item.
  • Click on Retirement-funding income under Other.
  • Select the relevant RFI Determination option from the drop-down menu. In this case, the first option – “All Income / Allowances / Benefits” – should be selected.
  • Click Save.

Regular Hours

You can set up the regular hours of the employees on the template as follows:

  • Click on Add Normal Item.
  • Click on Regular Hours under Other.
  • Leave the Schedule as “Fixed”.
  • Enter 12 as the Hours per day.
  • Tick the boxes next to all 7 days of the week.
  • Click on Override next to Full days per week and enter 5 (because they should get 15 days leave per year).
  • Click Save.

Night Shift Allowance

Since there is no system item for this, and if you have not previously created a custom item for it, you would add a template item for Night Shift Allowance as follows:

  • Under Actions, click on New Template-Only Item.
  • Click on Allowance.
  • Enter the Name as “Night Shift Allowance”.
  • Select “Custom rate * quantity” as the Input Type. (The quantity would be the number of shifts.)
  • Enter 0 as the Hours worked factor since these hours will be counted as part of the employees’ normal hours and should not be counted again (in the number of hours for ETI purposes).
  • Enter 5.5 as the Custom rate.
  • Tick the box next to Affects Wage for ETI Purposes if this allowance should be included as part of their Qualifying Wage for ETI purposes.
  • Click Save.

Cleaning Allowance

  • Under Actions, click on New Template-Only Item.
  • Click on Allowance.
  • Enter the Name as “Cleaning Allowance”.
  • Select “Fixed Amount” as the Input Type.
  • Enter 30 as the Amount.
  • Tick the box next to Affects Wage for ETI Purposes if this allowance should be included as part of their Qualifying Wage for ETI purposes.
  • Click Save.

PSIRA Levy

Although the PSIRA Levy is not specifically mentioned in the pricing structure, it might be applicable. The way it could be added is as follows:

  • Under Actions, click on New Template-Only Item.
  • Click on Deduction.
  • Enter the Name as “PSIRA Levy”.
  • Select “Enter Amount Per Employee” as the Input Type. This can be changed to “Fixed Amount” if more guidance is received from PSIRA.
  • Click Save.

Area Premium

There might be a premium applicable to the area that you operate in such as the Area 3 Premium in the example provided. If it applies, you could add it as follows:

  • Under Actions, click on New Template-Only Item.
  • Click on Allowance.
  • Enter the Name as “Area 3 Premium”.
  • Select “Fixed Amount” as the Input Type.
  • Enter 60 as the Amount.
  • Tick the box next to Affects Wage for ETI Purposes if this allowance should be included as part of their Qualifying Wage for ETI purposes.
  • Click Save.

Once your template is ready, you can decide on the applicability of template items, as well as which employees to add the template to. More information on these two aspects is available in the Templates section (linked to above).

Job Grades

Since this example also specifies different job grades, A-E, and the different job grades have different hourly rates, you need to create the job grades so that the template can calculate the basic salary for all the different job grades.

Please note: this last part of the article – about job grades – is not part of creating the template.

The job grades can be set up as follows:

  • Go to Settings > Job Grades > Add.
  • Enter “PSIRA Grade A” as the Name.
  • Enter 19.53 as the Fixed normal rate. 19.53 = 4,063 (montly salary) / 208 (average number of hours in a month).
  • Click Save.

This process can then be repeated for the other job grades, with changes to the Name and Fixed normal rate:

  • PSIRA Grade B: 17.77 – which is 3,697 / 208
  • PSIRA Grade C: 15.18 – which is 3,157 / 208
  • PSIRA Grade D/E: 15.06 – which is 3,133 / 208

Please note: you should take any differences between the areas into account; for example, some areas might have premiums while others won’t. Also, the hourly rates for the respective job grades might be different.

As always, if you require any further information or assistance, please feel free to contact our support team.