Employment fund salary rules
THE DEPARTMENT of Employment and Labour’s Compensation Fund will only be paying employees who contract Covid-19 in their workplaces for 30 days.
Compensation commissioner Vuyo Mafata revealed details of the benefits that workers who contract coronavirus during the outbreak would receive.
The move follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s undertaking on Monday that any employee who fell ill through exposure at work would be paid through the fund.
According to the notice on compensation for occupationally acquired novel coronavirus pandemic in terms of the Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, workers who are temporarily totally disabled would be paid for the period of their disability – but not longer than 30 days.
Suspected and unconfirmed victims of the coronavirus pandemic who decide to self-quarantine will be paid for the days they are absent from work.
The self-quarantining must be approved by a registered medical practitioner in accordance with the Department of Health, the World Health Organisation and the International Labour Organisation guidelines.
“For confirmed cases and where the Compensation Fund has accepted liability, temporary total disablement shall be paid from the date of diagnosis for up to 30 days,” states the notice.
Mafata also has the power to review and assess each case based on its merits, according to the notice.
The fund will provide medical aid in all accepted cases, but not for more than a period of 30 days, although Employment and Labour Director-General Thobile Lamati will reconsider this should there be evidence that further medical help will reduce permanent disability.
While the country has not so far recorded any Covid-19-related deaths, the fund has made provision for death benefits to workers, including reasonable burial expenses, widow and dependants’ pension benefits.
Mafata said he had demanded that all employers and medical service providers comply with the notice’s stipulated prescripts when submitting claims for Covid-19.
The notice also covers official trips undertaken by employees to high-risk countries or previously
Covid-19-free areas.
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will also compensate affected workers through the new national disaster benefit, as well as via other existing benefits including illness, reduced work time, temporary employer/employee relief schemes and unemployment benefits.
Cosatu affiliate, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union, yesterday said the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry in SA had ratified the country’s first Covid-19 lockdown collective agreement.
In terms of the deal, 80 000 workers in the textile industry would be guaranteed full pay for six weeks, including their UIF monies and employer contributions, while another Cosatu affiliate, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, revealed that the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council had agreed that police, traffic and correctional services officers who tested positive for Covid-19 would be granted special leave.