01 April: COVID-19 Communique: The UIF Process & Labour Relations Issues

Dear Colleagues

Herewith another in the series as promised, this time about UIF and how Government intends using this to address the challenges faced by both employers and employees affected by the Covid-19 lockdown period. They outline a series of simple claim steps, but please be aware that there is some doubt as to whether they can deliver the benefits timeously as promised, when there will literally be millions of claimants looking for rapid payments. Recognising the capacity constraints, the business community is already proactively putting forward a platform to effectively and speedily process the claims and deliver the benefits to claimants.

Whereas one acknowledges the challenges of maintaining business sustainability and being as empathetic to one’s employees as possible, there may be unfortunate decisions that will have to be made depending on the circumstances specific to a business. The attached documents provide some insight on how other Sectors are managing the situation and, in addition, you may refer to the link https://www.businessinsider.co.za/forced-to-take-leave-during-lockdown-2020-3 in order to get more ideas on options that may be exercised, as we all navigate through these unchartered waters.

CESA has access to information from many other resources with many more labour specific issues that you may want to consider and we will be posting these on our website as information available from related Organisations under the title of Covid-19 Bulletin Board rather than overwhelm you with all of these in just one Communique.

We trust that you appreciate this strategy in keeping members informed, whilst making the flow of information manageable to the recipient at the same time.

Kind Regards

Christopher (Chris) Campbell Pr. Eng.

Chief Executive Officer