LABOUR EMPLOYMENT HUMAN RESOURCES BULLETIN
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Following the announcement of a 21-day nationwide lockdown by President Ramaphosa on 23 March 2020, many employers have had to close their doors for at least the duration of the lockdown.
Many of these employers will be unable to continue to pay their employees during this time.
Thankfully, the UIF has established a COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) Benefit option for employers. The TERS Benefits are equivalent to the ordinary UIF benefits available to contributing employees on termination of employment. However, the TERS Benefits are payable only in respect of business closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The TERS Benefits are payable for a maximum period of three months.
In order to apply for the TERS Benefits on behalf of their employees, employers must send an email to covid19ters@labour.gov.za. Employers will then receive an automatic email response from the UIF with instructions on how to apply for the TERS Benefits. Unfortunately, the instructions contained in the automatic reply are relatively unclear especially with respect to the prescribed template document in which the employer is required to record all required employee information. The employee information must be captured in a specific .csv format although the template from the UIF is a .txt format.
Continue reading to learn more:
https://www.fasken.com/en/knowledge/2020/04/1-covid-19-practical-guidelines-claiming-uif-covid-19-benefits
Authors:
Neil Searle, nsearle@fasken.com
Tshepiso Rasetlola, trasetlola@fasken.com
Sinovuyo Makalima, smakalima@fasken.com
With acknowledgements to FASKEN…
