About 900 companies owe the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) about R52-million in workers’ membership fees and bargaining-council fees, Numsa said on Friday.
This was revealed in a study conducted by Numsa information technology specialists.
”Out of a total of 4 352 motor and garage workshops and retail, electrical and engineering companies which paid employees’ subscription contributions directly into the union account, 900 were found to have defaulted on payments for the past three years,” said Numsa’s legal officer, Booysen Mashigo.
Some engineering companies were deducting workers’ weekly union contributions, but deposited the funds into separate accounts to raise interest before paying them into union accounts, Mashigo said.
”The union is not only stuck with unpaid subscription fees, but it has identified a further R12-million transferred in the union accounts yearly which were not allocated to any companies because of administrative blunders committed by the bargaining councils,” he said.
It was also found that many Numsa members who were covered by the union’s funeral insurance scheme had fallen into arrears by two or three years.
Mashigo warned that companies that had deducted subscription fees, but failed to pay funds to the union, would be liable to settle the workers’ funeral claims.
He said many companies had already been issued with summonses to appear in court for failing to transfer subscription fees to the union.
”Numsa’s next move is to identify other companies and take them to court if they have no other means of settling the arrears debts,” Mashigo said. — Sapa