Getting pay-outs from the Unemployment Insurance Fund has become a nightmare for many women, writes Khadija Magardie
South Africa has legislation that ensures relative job security to women whose work is temporarily or permanently interrupted by motherhood. This is extended to cover not only childbirth, but cases of miscarriage, stillbirth and even adoption.
According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, women on maternity leave are entitled to 45% of their basic salary. This is provided that they have been engaged in employment as a contributor to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), or have been in employment for at least 13 of the 52 weeks preceding confinement.
But for many South African women who pass through the Department of Labour offices, getting their pay-outs on time has become a bureaucratic nightmare.
Frustrations such as broken printers, misplaced documents and endless queues mean that some women are receiving their cheques up to three months after handing in the required documentation.
Na’eema Adams, a 25-year-old administrator, handed in her documentation to the UIF offices in June, two weeks after the birth of her daughter. She received her first cheque in September.
Adams, who returns to work in November, finds it “ironic” that she will only receive the money, which she needed to cover the expenses for her baby, when she is back at work, and theoretically able to support herself.
Numerous women sitting on the benches at the UIF offices in downtown Johannesburg have similar stories of having to “scrape together money” to survive between cheques, which are supposed to be issued at 20-day intervals.
One woman, who did not want to be named, said she had to spend money she often did not have to phone the UIF offices, as well as on taxi fares to make the trip from Isando to Johannesburg. And more often than not she was told her cheque was not ready.
Despite the Department of Labour offices having a separate section for maternity pay-outs, women bringing in their forms have to sit in the main hall in endless queues. Most are carrying their infants, and have to feed and change them while sitting patiently on the narrow benches.
Adams says there should be mechanisms in place to ensure that women are not left in virtual economic suspension because the department does not process the documentation on time. These measures should also be broadened to include banks, which confound delays. Bank policy dictates that crossed cheques can only be drawn after a minimum of one working week. “If they can clear salary cheques across the counter, why not our UIF cheques?”
It has also been suggested that the time frame for payment be changed. This can be solved if women bring in the documentation, excluding medical certificates, on their last working day, to allow the department ample time to process the application. Upon presentation of a medical certificate, as soon after the birth as possible, the cheque should be immediately issued.
According to many of the women, the UIF officials never offer an explanation for the delay, and are often rude when answering telephonic inquiries.
The Department of Labour says it has to deal with thousands of applications, and that delays are often inevitable. But the cause of the problem is seldom rectified.
A department representative called the numerous mishaps “the exception rather than the rule”, and said that women should hand in their documentation on time to prevent unnecessary delays.
He also said that it was not a necessary prerequisite that women deliver, in order to be paid out. The department is also currently testing new measures, such as the electronic payment directly into bank accounts, to ease the burden on the UIF offices.
Adams dismisses the department’s explanation that the printing of cheques takes time. One of her cheques, she says, was dated less than three days after she handed in her forms. Despite this, she waited more than a month to receive it.
A substantial portion of South African women in paid employment are sole income earners. As a result, the delay impacts significantly on their entire household.
While the UIF provides protection for women in the event of suspension of their employment, the “spanners in its works” are making it decidedly difficult for these very women.