hours
9 January 2007
Thousands of workers, who were previously not registered with the UIF, are
now expected to start enjoying UIF coverage as more and more employers begin to
comply with the Unemployment Insurance Act.
Thousands of employers and workers continue to flood the Unemployment
Insurance Fund with enquiries in response to the latest awareness campaign
around the rights of workers and employers' obligations in terms of the
Unemployment Insurance Act.
The UIF launched its multi-million rand advertising campaign in the middle
of December last year to create awareness around its services and offerings.
The fund also launched a media campaign urging close to 530 000 domestic
employers to update details of their more than 628 000 domestic workers in line
with the 2006 December domestic workers' wage increases.
This followed an increase in the domestic workers' wages from R997,04 to R1
066,90 per month for employees working for more than 27 hours a week in the
higher paid areas or Area A. In Area B the increase went up from R808,92 to
R865,54 per month.
UIF's spokesperson, Kgomotso Sebetso said the awareness messages had been
well received by both workers and employers.
"Our Call Centre has been inundated with calls from employers and employees
alike. We are currently handling on average more than 400 calls per hour. On
any given day we receive close to 3 000 calls," he said.
He said the nature of the calls ranges from employers registering their
workers for the first time to employers updating the details of the workers and
making regular monthly UIF contributions.
Sebetso said the Fund was aware that it could not assist everyone who called
our call centre and for that the Fund would like to apologise unreservedly.
"As a result we are pleased to announce to our clients that we have now
extended our office hours in the call centre by two more hours during the week
with immediate effect. This means that our call centre will be opened from
07h30 to 18h00 during the week. The UIF Call Centre will now also be
operational on weekends from 07h30 to 14h00 and this is all done in the
interest of our employers and workers," he added.
Sebetso reminded employers that if they employ anyone for more than 24 hours
a month whether operating a big or small business it was compulsory to register
such persons with the UIF.
"Remember that failure to comply with the Unemployment legislation
constitutes a punishable offence which could lead to a fine or imprisonment, or
to both a find and imprisonment."
Sebetso concluded by reminding domestic employers and non-South African
Revenue Service employers that the UIF had introduced a new easy online payment
and declarations channel which could be found at http://www.ufiling.gov.za for their
convenience.
UIF Call Centre number � (012) 337 1680. Employers also have a dedicated fax
line on (012) 337 1943/1944/1580/1581/1582.
Enquiries:
Kgomotso Sebetso
Cell: 073 269 9870
Issued by: Department of Labour
9 January 2007
