Organised labour is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to put the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Compensation Fund under administration or appoint new management due to alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Addressing the media at NEDLAC’s offices in Johannesburg, some of the country’s biggest union federations lamented the systemic inefficiencies, corruption and the lack of capacity that plague the UIF and Compensation Fund.

They stress that the inefficiencies identified at the two social security funds infringe on workers’ rights to access benefits.

Convenor of Organised Labour at NEDLAC Gerald Twala says, “Workers pay the hard price for these failures through long delays in processing payment of claims. Thousands of injured workers are forced to wait for benefits because of administrative failures, rejected claims and system inefficiencies linked to the outdated and vulnerable infrastructure.

“The fund systems are often offline at labour centres and digital platforms creating long queues of frustration and hardships for workers seeking assistance. The crisis in these funds cannot be sanitized any longer while workers are not receiving their income relief on time,” Twala explains.

Source link