UIF amendments announced
Edwin Tshivhidzo
30 March 2004
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has announced amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Act exempting certain categories of workers from contributing to the fund.
According to the amendments, with effect from 1 April, only those workers legally defined as public servants, certain trainees and those receiving state old-age pensions will be legally exempted from contributing to the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
The amendments, at the same time, stipulate that all national, provincial and other public entities will be required to contribute to the Fund as from 1 April. These include constitutional institutions such as the Human Rights Commission and the Independent Electoral Commission, major public entities such as Denel and Eskom, the Agricultural Research Council and the SA Bureau of Standards, Rand Water and Umgeni Water.
Mdladlana, speaking in Pretoria after formally gazetting the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act, said only public
servants as defined in terms of the Public Service Act of 1994 would be excluded from contributing to the fund.
He said people who receive the monthly state social pension will no longer be required to contribute, although those who receive a disability or maintenance grant will still be required to contribute.
Mdladlana said other provisions of the amendment include the establishment of a regional appeals committee to handle all disputes arising out of claim officers' decisions. This means that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration will no longer have jurisdiction over UIF matters.
"We are also giving recognition to the fact that domestic workers can work for more than one employer and become partially unemployed if they lose one or more of those jobs," he said.
Mdladlana said the Act recognises that unemployment for domestic workers could be as a result of the death of an employer.
The minister added that to give further impetus to
the learnership drive, his department had also decided to exempt both learners and employers who take young students into learnership programmes from contributing to the fund.
The UIF Act, which was enacted two years ago, has been credited with turning around the fortunes of the fund from a previous string of deficits into a surplus of R1.4-billion in the 2002/2003 financial year.
Source: BuaNews
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