South African parastatals and their employees will be required to contribute to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) from April 1, the Labour Department said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Snuki Zikalala said in a statement that Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana had announced in Pretoria, after formally regulating the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act, that only public service workers would be exempted from contributing to the UIF.
He also said workers and employers who took young students into learnership programmes and pensioners receiving old-age pension grants would also be exempted from contributing to the UIF.
”But, (Mdladlana) was also quick to point out that people in receipt of a disability or maintenance grant would, however, still be required by law to contribute to the Fund,” said Zikalala.
Zikalala said some technical issues regarding the legislation, that led to some parastatals withdrawing from the fund, had been clarified by the amendment, signed it into law late last year by President Thabo Mbeki.
”One of the main objectives of the Amendment Act is to clarify the status of all Public Servants as the Unemployment Insurance Act of 2001 had the unintended effect of creating a very broad base of interpreting those organs of State which function within the national and provincial spheres of government,” Mdladlana said.
”We hope that this gesture will be welcomed with open arms by pensioners as it brings further relief to them.”
Zikalala said other provisions of the amendment included an establishment of a Regional Appeals Committee that would handle all the disputes arising from decisions by the claim officers. That meant the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration would no longer handle UIF disputes.
”The UI Act, which celebrates its second birthday next month, 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 2002/03 financial year,” said Zikalala. – Sapa