Tag: Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS)

The South African corporate sector invests millions each year to support community development and social programmes. Many corporates, however, often lack the tools to measure and report on the impact of these initiatives. Often organisations report on the actions taken, input and investment rather than the outcomes.

As calm steadily returns after the recent social unrest, analysts are hard at work tallying the cost of the looting and disruption to economic activity. So far, the damage to 2021 growth is estimated at between 0.5 and 1.0 percentage points.

Employers seeking an appropriate response to the civil unrest and public looting in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of South Africa will have to consider different factual circumstances. As a result of the civil unrest and public looting in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere, employers may face one of the three scenarios.

The Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) 2020 was tabled to Parliament on 28 October 2020 by South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.

An interview with Lauren Salt, Executive, Employment, ENSafrica, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, discussing the most recent changes to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS), also referred to as UIF TERS - specifically the new directive 2.3.1,  the implications for employers claiming benefits and the future of the COVID-19 relief scheme.

Blame "Capital Monopoly" if you must, but blame "White Monopoly Capital" at your peril. The South African Government's strategy, when dealing with the economic fallout, has been to set itself off against Business squarely, being the demon in society, while characterising Government as the White Knight out to protect society against the ravages of bad Business.

An interview with Jacques van Wyk, Director, Werksmans Attorneys, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, discussing an article penned by Bradley Workman-Davies, Director, Werksmans Attorneys, in the August/September edition of BusinessBrief, apropos an important recent judgement in the Johannesburg High Court which has provided some clarity with regard to no-work no-pay during the lockdown.

With the increasing number of COVID-19 infections, employers must deal with employees who test positive for the virus, those who come into contact with individuals who test positive, and those who present with COVID-19 related symptoms. It is therefore important for employers to understand when sick leave must be used.

With the easing of the nationwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the Government's 'Risk Adjusted Strategy' (comprising of five lockdown levels), more and more business can lawfully operate again. As a result, employees will be returning to work and employers will be obliged to remunerate them again.

To date, the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) has paid over R15,7-billion to 2,288,295 in its COVID-19 relief payments. Many employers, however, are still having their applications rejected. Small, seemingly insignificant discrepancies in submissions are seen as mistakes and will lead to the submission being rejected.