The Department of Labour on Thursday stated that the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act has been formally signed into law by South African President Thabo Mbeki and has been published in the Government Gazette.
The department said this follows its passage with unanimous backing through both houses of Parliament.
In welcoming the news, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday that the provisions of the Act would be implemented in two phases.
“We are currently in the process of sending out a promulgation notice to the president in which we are stating the dates on which the law will be effected,” Mdladlana said.
He said the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) was targeting January 1 2004 to start implementing most of the provisions of the new amendments.
The minister said only two sections of the amendments, namely that which recognised the multiple employment of domestic workers and that clarifying the status of public servants, would be implemented on April 1 to coincide with the second anniversary of the implementation of the current Unemployment Insurance Act of 2001.
The 2001 Act has been credited with being instrumental in turning around the fortunes of the UIF from a previous string of deficits into a surplus of R1,4-billion in the 2002/03 financial year.
“We moved the implementation of the exclusion of public servants as defined in the Public Service Act of 1994 to April next year to accommodate semi-governmental bodies, which will need time to get their financial systems ready to start contributing in the next financial year,” he said
He added that the Unemployment Insurance Act of 2001 had the unintended effect of creating confusion in the public sector with regards to who was supposed to contribute and not.
“It was not the intention of the drafters of the legislation to exclude employees of parastatals from contributing and therefore accessing benefits. The intention is only to exclude public servants as defined in terms of the Public Service Act of 1994,” said the minister.
Mdladlana pointed out that the amendments were not aimed at introducing fundamental changes to the Act, but were mainly aimed at refining some of the provisions.
“Other amendments will result in the establishment of Regional Appeals Committees and, in terms of domestic workers recognition of multiple employment and partial unemployment and recognition of unemployment as a result of the death of an employer of a domestic worker,” he said.
The minister continued that as people in employment who receive a monthly state social pension are not eligible for benefits they would no longer contribute to the fund. Similarly, those who entered learnerships in terms of Section 1(1) of the Skills Development Act would also be excluded from contributing.
He said one of the most important aspects of the amendments was the removal of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration’s jurisdiction over UIF matters.
“Disputes arising out of the decisions of claim officers will in future be referred to regional appeals committees and the national appeals committee in Pretoria will be the final adjudicator on appeals. This is being done in the spirit of improving service delivery to our people by bringing dispute resolutions closer to the people,” explained the minister.
Mdladlana said nominations had already been received from labour, business and community constituencies for their representatives to serve on the new regional appeals committees.
“I will soon be approving the names of those people who are going to serve on the regional appeals committees,” he said
Meanwhile, Mdladlana said the registration of domestic workers with the fund continued and approximately 580 000 have been registered to date. — I-Net Bridge