Relief now open to all affected
AMENDMENT: EMPLOYEES CAN APPLY THEMSELVES BUT NO DIRECTIVE YET ON HOW TO DO IT
Amnesty needed or errant employers may not assist employees in providing proof of employment.
All workers, whether or not they were registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) at the time of the lockdown, can now apply for Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (Ters) funding in what has been described as a victory, particularly for farm and domestic workers.
The new regulations, published this week by Employment and Labour Minister Thembelani Nxesi, also allow anyone who has lost income or been forced to take annual leave to apply for benefits from Ters.
The amendment came on the eve of an urgent Labour Court application launched by the Casual Workers’ Advice Office, Women on Farms Project and Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance.
In a joint statement, the three organisations said workers previously excluded from the scheme, because their employers had unlawfully failed to register them for UIF, would now qualify for the benefit.
“Domestic and farm workers have been among the worst-affected groups of workers due to the precarious nature of employment in these sectors and the high levels of noncompliance from employers. Many industrial workers have suffered a similar fate.
“This victory will be vital in securing the livelihoods of workers who have been most severely impacted by the economic consequences of lockdown,” they said.
They said it had been a hard-fought battle and an “unnecessarily slow and protracted process”. The organisations first raised the issue on 1 April in a letter to the minister pointing out that workers could not apply for relief for themselves. Employers were “encouraged” to apply on their behalf, but were not required to do so.
The organisations also pointed out that workers not registered with the UIF were being punished by their employers’ illegal conduct. “The government’s piecemeal approach in dealing with these two straightforward issues has resulted in distress and hunger for millions of workers over the past two months,” they said.
On 16 April, the minister amended the original directive, ordering that employers “must” apply on behalf of workers, but there was still no enforcement mechanism to ensure they did so.
“In another amendment signed on 30 April, the government made a complete U-turn, officially allowing workers to apply individually if the employer had failed to do so.
“As of today, there is still no clear information on how workers can apply,” the organisations said, adding that this should be addressed urgently.
Labour lawyer Dunstan Farrell said the amendment should be followed by an amnesty of some sort. “The regulations now define a worker as a contributor to the UIF, or an employee as defined in the Unemployment Act, who should have received benefits but because of circumstances under his control did not.
“These circumstances include the failure of the employer to register the employee and pay the contributions. This is a contravention of law and attracts penalties.”
“Without some form of amnesty, errant employers may not be willing to assist the employee in providing proof of their employment,” Farrell said. – GroundUp
This will be vital in securing the livelihoods of workers