A week after president Cyril Ramaphosa announced the stimulus package to boost the economy of the country during the lockdown, the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has said thousands of workers may not get their monies on time because of non-compliance from some companies.
The president announced that government has set aside R40 billion for companies who will not be able to pay their workers during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
The pandemic and the nationwide lockdown have forced most citizens to stay at home, putting the UIF under a lot of pressure.
Minister of labour Thulas Nxesi revealed that some employers were still not adhering to the relevant laws. These ranged from some forcing employees to take leave, to those who are providing non-essential services obtaining fraudulent operating and trading certificates.
Nxesi also announced a National Disaster Covid-19 benefit that the UIF has put in place as an instrument to mitigate the effects of worker layoffs during the nationwide lockdown.
The Minister also urged employer organisations to intensify their communication to individual employers informing them of their responsibilities during this critical period.
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping says employers who have applied for UIF and are yet to declare their employees, should do so on their website and declare them as soon as possible. Maruping says they have 44 000 companies that have claimed and 289 000 employees awaiting to receive their payouts.
Maruping says these employees are to receive an amount of R1.1 billion - their system only pays out 38 to 60 percent of workers’ salaries.
Employees will get no less than R3 500 each, according to Maruping, which means that even when they qualify for only R2 000, the UIF will raise it up to R3 500. But no employee will get anything more than R6 700.
But Maruping says they will not be able to make payments to workers whose employers failed to comply with UIF regulations, which is why they are calling on employers to make arrangements with the fund if they are facing any difficulties.
“We are flooded with claims from people not registered on the system and what has happened [is that] when the company applies for the Covid-19 tax benefit, most of the time we pick up that most of these employees are not registered with UIF and they have not been declared for a number of months or years.
“All we’re asking these companies is, if you have applied for your employees and you know you haven't declared, write to UIF and tell us which employees you have not applied for and also how you’re going to make up the payment that you haven't made to UIF. Our turnaround time is within 24-hours and at worst within 48-hours,” asserts Maruping.
Maruping concluded by saying that they also emphasize that all businesses with employees - from spaza shops to hair salons - who are registered with UIF, including domestic workers, can apply for this relief.
Cover image: mayaonmoney.co.za
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