Employers have been urged to ensure that money paid over by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) for the COVID-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) is disbursed to the workers.
Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi made the call to employers following numerous complaints received from workers who allege that their employers have not paid them the money the UIF has disbursed as part of COVID-19 TERS.
The money is meant to provide temporary relief for workers who are at home or to at least meet some of their salary demands.
“To date we have paid close to R9 billion in COVID-19 relief. This is the amount that we are paying for relief for workers and we appeal to the employers to ensure that it is paid to the workers without any further delay,” said the Minister.
To ensure that there was no delay in payments to workers, the UIF provided employers with the breakdown of how much each worker deserves. This was after there were complaints that the lump sums were confusing employers.
“We took a decision to break down the payments, a decision that saw our systems almost overwhelmed with information as we did not want workers’ funds to be delayed even further. We once again appeal to employers with outstanding information regarding claims to ensure that they forward these as soon as possible.
“A total of 576 639 workers have been disadvantaged to the tune of close to R2.4 billion. There are also 17 473 workers who are also disadvantaged because of failed bank verification and an amount of R80 124 837.42 will be paid over as soon as this is resolved,” said Nxesi.
To date the fund has paid R8 836 010 295.56 to 114 661 employers for 1 525 308 workers and R152 031 601.04 has been paid through 845 bargaining councils affecting 56 456 workers. A total of R1 295 078 468.38 has been paid in ordinary benefits. – SAnews.gov.za
