by Michael Bagraim
As we enter into 2021 and the second wave of Covid-19 we have been placed once again under Level 3 which has put enormous strain on the business community and in particular the gainful employment of the workforce.
The ongoing lockdown has devastated the South African economy and in particular has affected every single family throughout our land.
South Africans will recall that at the end of February 2020 the president did say that the government would step in through the Department of Employment and Labour and try and help alleviate some of the hardships suffered by the workers who are going to be placed on unpaid leave because of the lockdown.
This system known as Ters was partially successful but the hardships and quite frankly the nightmare of trying to claim has taken its toll on literally millions of workers of South Africa.
Despite this ongoing nightmare many other millions were indeed paid out enabling many families to at least put bread on the table.
This pandemic has clearly been unprecedented in modern history and is probably the worst the workforce has faced in a hundred years.
As we move forward, it must be noted that the Ters payments could only have been claimed up until the October 15, 2020.
The Government Gazette was printed confirming this closure and if any claims had not been submitted by the end of November 2020 the claims became invalid.
There are still literally thousands of valid claims that have not been met and ongoing discussions and disputes have arisen from the many thousands of non-payments due to various reasons.
It must be pointed out that the national negotiating body Nedlac, has in fact raised the issue of the reopening of the Ters claims due to the fact that the country was moved back to Level 3.
These discussions will hopefully result in a reopening of Ters so that the employers can once again claim on behalf of the employees who have been earning less than their salary because of the lockdown.
In light of the ongoing disputes and the trauma and hardship suffered by the employees of South Africa the Department of Employment and Labour has structured a dispute resolution process which was printed and sent out on the 7th January 2021.
A memorandum of understanding was entered into between employers and the UIF (and the Bargaining Councils) explaining that should any dispute pertaining to the performance of the agreement arise then one of the parties can notify the other party in writing in order to attempt to resolve the dispute amicably.
This Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) said that the parties should meet within 5 days if a dispute has been notified in writing.
This document does have an attached dispute resolution form which allows the parties to attach any relevant supporting documents.
This form with the supporting documents must be sent to [email protected].
The reference on this email should state “Covid19 Ters dispute and Reference No … ” There are designated officials who will be dealing with the disputes and they are Advocate Yawa, Mr B Dingaan and Mr A Ragavallo.
Some of the examples which can be subject to this dispute resolution process is as follows: failed bank verification; password reset – access to TERS platform; payment to unverified foreign nationals; CSV file failures, including for periods prior to the closure date; declaration; unprocessed claims where error messages have been provided.
Although the Department of Employment and Labour has been almost wholly dysfunctional throughout this process they have now put together a call centre which can be reached on 0800 030 007.
The Department has also promised that they will add additional management channels and these channels will be communicated to users shortly.
The disputes can include the performance of the UIF in relation to the MOA as well as benefits calculation and or payment challenges.
One big issue that has arisen is the failure of the employer to apply timeously before closure dates.
This issue doesn’t seem to have been resolved at all and although many employees have suffered because of the failure of the employers these employees haven’t been helped at this point.
Should one wish to submit the dispute resolution document they should also provide sufficient detailed information to the Department to enable consideration of the dispute and determination of the way forward.
These documents can be obtained from the Department of Employment and Labour website but should anyone wish to have a copy of the dispute form I will gladly email them a copy.
Please send me an email on [email protected] requesting a Covid19 Ters Dispute Form.
This dispute form is easy to read and complete and does differentiate between the various stages of the lockdown from the March 27 until the October 15, 2020.
Applicants are asked to provide detailed explanation of the nature of the dispute and attach it to the specific period as to when the claim arose.
Although we have not had an opportunity at this stage to test the viability of this dispute resolution process it is hoped that at least the department will acknowledge receipt of these documents and will in turn look at each particular case through one of the three experts described above.
It does bear noting at this point that the top management team of the UIF who had had a hand in leading the UIF through this completely destroyed process are still on full pay but at home on suspension.
* Michael Bagraim is a labour lawyer. He can be contacted at [email protected].
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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