Peter asks: I need clarity on an employer which forces employees to belong to an open medical aid through conditions of service.
The employee can choose a different medical scheme if they don’t want to opt for the employer’s prefered medical scheme but they have to belong to a scheme. Can the employer force an employee to belong to scheme while they do not subsidise the contributions on premiums?
Maya replies: Before we go into the legalities, whether or not your employer is insisting on it, you should sign up with a medical scheme — even if it is a basic hospital plan. An unexpected medical emergency can bankrupt you.
According to Bernie Clark of Alexander Forbes Health, an employer can’t force membership of a particular scheme if it is not paying a subsidy unless it forms part of your contract of employment.
Many employers restrict the number of medical schemes available to their staff to limit payroll administration and because preferential underwriting terms are often available to employees if only one or two schemes are offered.
Medical schemes generally apply medical underwriting to individuals, so joining a medical scheme under the banner of a corporate is often an advantage.
The bottom line is that either the company should be paying a subsidy or it was part of your conditions of employment.
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