In a bid to help curb the spread of Covid-19 and to prevent turning needs for services into super-spreaders, the Department of Employment and Labour is relaxing some of its processes.
Through its entity, the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), the Department in the Eastern Cape, one of the worst affected provinces, has set out key interventions to address service delivery issues and reduce the number of clients visiting Labour Centres by relaxing adherence to its processes.
Large scale shedding of jobs in the economy, clients submitting continuation forms, UIF-enquiries such as; status of applications, credit days, payment dates and amounts have been identified as contributing factors to long queues which could possibly increase cross-infection of Coronavirus.
In eliminating all the red tape whilst limiting queues at Labour Offices, the UIF will be dealing with employers who will be retrenching directly for collection of documents and taking/capturing of UIF employee applications.
You are no longer expected to go to Dept of Employment and Labour centres
Clients who are receiving unemployment benefits are not expected to go to the Department on a monthly basis to sign a continuation form but will be paid by the Fund as per pay sheet using statistics of the previous month.
There will also use an sms- functionality to inform clients of the status of their application so that they do not visit the department for such enquiries.
The UIF will also implement an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) functionality from the 30 January 2021 which will enable clients to follow-up on their claims.
“Occupational Health and Safety remains the core business of the Department and in protecting both the employees and clients, the Department will put necessary measures and reduce the spread of Corona virus by allowing claims to be paid without mandatory source documents pending that everything is verified and correct,” said Chief Director: Provincial Operations; Ms Nomfundo Douw- Jack.
In the unfortunate event of an employee contracting the Corona virus as a direct result of the work, a manual or online claim can be lodged using the following details: Compensation Fund: covid19claims@labour.gov.za or phone 0860 105 350 or CompEasy (www.labour.gov.za) Clients are also encouraged to make use of the Departments’ online services by logging on to www.labour.gov.za