27 December 2006
Employers of domestic workers throughout the country are reminded to submit
to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) within the first week of January 2007,
all the adjustments made to the wages of their domestic workers in line with
December wage increases as announced by the Department of Labour.
Last week the department announced the new adjustments in terms of the
Sectoral Determination for domestic workers, which sets out the minimum wages
and employment conditions for the workers in this the most vulnerable sector.
The sector had over the years been plagued by abuse and total disregard of
workers' rights by employers.
According to the wage table, domestic workers' wages would go up to R1066,90
per month for employees working for more than 27 hours in a week in the higher
paid areas or Area A. Domestic workers' wages who work for more than 27 hours
per week in the lower areas or Area B would go up to R865,54 per month.
UIF's Spokesperson, Kgomotso Sebetso said the Unemployment Insurance Act of
2001 requires of every employer to inform the Unemployment Insurance
Commissioner of any changes such as remuneration, during the prior month.
"This information should be forwarded within seven days after the end of
each month. In this case the information should be supplied to the Fund before
7 January 2007," he said.
All those domestic employers who pay their UIF contributions annually were
expected to submit their declarations once a year, but this must also be in
line with the new wage increases.
"We wish to remind domestic employers that we have introduced a new easy
online payment and declarations channel and can be found at http://www.ufiling.gov.za for their
convenience," Sebetso said.
Sebetso warned that failure to comply with the law constitutes a punishable
offence which could lead to a fine or imprisonment, or to both a fine and
imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the Fund continues to receive new registrations of employees
every month.
"In October 2006, 275 new domestic employees were registered. We again in
the same month, received about 2 276 applications for benefits from domestic
workers, 2 125 of which were approved. This proves an outstanding approval as
well as payment rate to the beneficiaries," Sebetso added.
To date, approximately close to 628 000 domestic employees have been
registered with the Fund with more than 500 000 employers actively complying
with the UIF requirements.
Since the first registration in 2003, UIF has made more than R65 million
payments to about 74 000 beneficiaries as temporary relief during their time of
unemployment. Although most of the claims were largely in the unemployment
benefits, the Fund received the applications on other benefits such as the
maternity, adoption and death benefits.
"We are looking forward to the fourth anniversary of the inclusion of the
domestic workers in the Fund in 2007. The Fund prides itself of the exceptional
contributions it made in alleviating poverty in this sector," Sebetso
concluded.
Enquiries:
Kgomotso Sebetso
Cell: 073 2699 870
Issued by: Department of Labour
27 December 2006
