UIF drive goes to Lydenburg
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will be hosting a seminar with the private security sector in Lydenburg.
The purpose of Friday’s session is to unpack and engage workers and employers in the private security sector about the Unemployment Insurance Act, which was amended and came into effect in January.
The amendments in the act allow workers to claim for up to 365 days instead of 238 if they worked for a continuous four-year period. Workers undergoing learnership training will be eligible for unemployment benefits once their contract ends.
READ: President signs National Minimum Wage Bill into law
Another amendment is that benefits are paid from the date of unemployment, instead of the application date; workers will have 12 instead of six months to claim for unemployment benefits, and maternity benefits will be paid at a 66 per cent fixed rate.
The Department of Labour will also present on the National Minimum Wage (NMW), which came into effect in January, while the Compensation Fund (CF) will deliberate on the proposed amendments to the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COID) bill.
READ: SA unemployment rate rises to 27.7%
The NMW Act stipulates that R20 is the minimum rate workers should earn per hour. For farm and forestry workers, the rate is R18.00 per hour, domestic workers R15.00 per hour and for Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), it is R11.00 per hour.
