DURBAN - MORE than 75 000 workers were affected by last month’s unrest which ravaged businesses in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
This was revealed by the Department of Employment and Labour on Friday when it announced the approval of the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s temporary relief scheme to assist workers of looted businesses in both provinces.
The department said the UIF’s Destroyed, Affected or Looted Workplaces: Temporary Financial Relief Scheme has finally been approved and published in the Government Gazette last week. “This financial relief scheme has been established to assist workers whose workplaces have been closed due to recent unrest resulting in either reduced pay or no pay at all,” it said.
The department has set criteria for employers when applying for funds. Every employer has to first register with the UIF to access the benefit. Qualifying employers would be required to apply on behalf of their employees.
Payment of the temporary financial relief may only be done directly into the worker’s bank account, unless the UIF Commissioner specifies the conditions under which payments can be made into the employer’s account.
This has put the department on a collision course with workers’ unions.
Cosatu provincial secretary Edwin Mkhize said on Sunday they were not happy that the department wanted to repeat the mistake it made during Covid-19 relief funds for workers where most companies ended up taking the money that was to go to workers.
Mkhize said Cosatu wants workers who can apply for themselves to do that without the employer’s involvement to avoid the corruption picked up during the Covid-19 relief scheme.
The department must also pay workers whose companies were not registered with UIF because it was not the fault of the workers, he said.
“We have raised these issues in the Nedlac (National Economic Development and Labour Council) and we are going to raise it again with Minister Thulas Nxesi on Thursday. We want the Labour Department to pay workers’ UIF straight into their bank accounts.”
Nxesi and new Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams are expected to launch the UIF relief scheme in the province on Thursday and Friday. Some of the conditions are that the employer must detail the destruction, closure, or damage to, or looting of, its workplace and submit documentary proof of a report to the SAPS, with proof of a case number, and, if insured, proof of submission or receipt of the insurance claim.
The maximum payment will not exceed R6 700; the minimum will not be less than R3 500 a month.
Daily News