Every employer in South Africa is obliged to register every employee with various statutory institutions.
With a few exceptions, employees must be registered for Pay As You Earn income tax, the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation Fund and various other levies.
Employees also have money deducted from their monthly or weekly pay, in accordance with the statutory payments that are obliged to be paid to the government. And certain deductions are taken from employees in accordance with whatever institution the employees belong to. For instance, certain employees have a medical aid and certain employees belong to private pension or provident funds.
There are a whole host of other deductions that can be taken from employees. In many of the structures, employers pay a certain contribution and employees have their own contribution deducted from their salaries.
Unfortunately, there are many instances where employers deduct the money but don’t pay it over to the relevant authorities. In some instances, employers ignore the legal obligations and don’t bother deducting the money.
In some of the most egregious situations, employers deduct money for the UIF, for instance, and don’t pay it over for years. This is theft, a criminal offence under our labour legislation.
In the private sector, when the Department of Employment and Labour is alerted to the activity, it immediately takes action by sending inspectors to investigate the situation and assess the employer’s books of account. Once the inspector determines the shortfall, the department will charge penalties and interest, and take immediate action to ensure that the full amount of the deduction from the employee and the contribution from the employer is paid to the department.
In that particular instance, an employer is stealing the money from its staff as it does deduct the money belonging to the staff from the staff’s salary and then uses it for other purposes.
Unfortunately, we have seen many examples in state-owned enterprises where the situation is as bad as you can get. It has been shown the South African Post Office has been deducting medical aid payments from its staff for years and not paying the outstanding medical aid contribution to the medical aid company, Medipos.
The employees were unaware of the situation until they tried to claim. The issue was uncovered more than six months ago, and the Post Office has not sorted out the situation. It is ridiculous to state that R561.7million is outstanding in medical aid contributions despite all the deductions being taken off employees’ pay.
We have seen the scenario repeated numerous times in numerous stateowned enterprises. The message sent out to the public and, in particular, businesses is you can comfortably steal money from your staff.
It is about time the workers stand together to ensure the government stops its cheating. ANC policies have not done the workers any favours. The policies have led us down the slippery slope of unemployment and low productivity. It is vital for every employee to demand a payslip, allowing them to investigate what deductions have been made and and determine whether the deductions found their way to the rightful recipients.
People should be contacting the department to find out if their UIF is up to date. They should be doing the same with their medical aid and service providers.
It is shocking to see what is happening in this beloved country of ours.
* Michael Bagraim.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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