Cape Town – The Department of Employment and Labour has launched an investigation into African Debt Advisors, a Cape Town call centre, for suspected fraud.
The department conducted an inspection at African Debt Advisors last week and issued a prohibition notice for being in contravention of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act.
While conducting the inspection, the department also noted irregularities with its Covid-19 TERS fund payouts.
Department spokesperson Candice van Reenen said they put a stop to the call centre’s operations after the company “failed to satisfy labour inspectors during a reactive inspection at the workplace” on Wednesday.
“The company was not able to present a risk assessment that spoke to Covid-19 regulations; there was no personal protective equipment provided to staff, there was a general lack of social distancing and poor sanitisation.
During a walkabout, it was also observed that the company did not follow some of the basic principles associated with the OHS Act.
“The company was found to be in contravention of the environmental regulations on fire prevention, as all fire equipment was outdated. Based on the comprehensive findings, the employer was issued with a prohibition notice and asked to vacate the premises. Prohibition notices essentially mean that no operations may take place at the premises where the notice was served,” said Van Reenen.
The department is now in the process of issuing a subpoena to the employer to appear before the chief inspector and explain the absence of documents required to follow-up on allegations of defrauding the Covid-19 Ters system and the exploitation of workers. The employer was also inspected in respect of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Act.
The employer has been asked to provide information of employees listed on the payroll, an approved and rejected list of employees under the Covid-19 Ters benefit for applications made for April, May and June 2020.
“The information is expected to also include advances made to staff, deductions, and a list of staff who did not work for the set period and also did not receive Covid-19 Ters benefits,” Van Reenen said.
Provincial chief inspector David Esau said part of the inspection process was to inform employees and employers of the findings.
This, however, was not well received and the employees reacted with contempt towards department inspectors.
“The entrances were blocked by the employees and the employer, demanding us to overrule our decision that the premises were dangerous.”
The department will be conducting a follow-up inspection today, said Esau. He said the company had not yet submitted documents related to Ters or UIF by Friday last week.
Attempts to get comment from African Debt Advisors were unsuccessful yesterday.
Cape Times