EL workers in uproar over UIF contributions

Employees at an East London plastic manufacturing company have taken issue with  their employer over unemployment insurance fund (UIF) payouts.

HaddPack Pty Ltd employees, some of whom receive R10 or less an hour, claim the company threatened to shut down when they raised their concerns about their unpaid UIF contributions amid the Covid-19 impact  on the company.

SA's minimum wage was increased from R20 per hour to R20,76 this year, effective from March 1.

At least three employees claim that the company, in Wilsonia, has been deducting between R15 and R23 a month for UIF from their salaries, which range between R1,500 and R2,200 a month. By law employers must pay UIF contributions of 2% of the value of each worker's pay per month. The employer and the worker each contribute 1%. 

They said the company told workers not to report for work at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown at the end of March.

After the labour & unemployment department’s announcement in March that workers could claim UIF through their companies, the employees said they had been shocked when their boss, Denis Schwarz, told them last week they could claim for their UIF only after four years.

Approached for comment on Thursday, Schwarz said: “This story has f**k-all to do with you.”

Asked why he paid some workers only R10 an hour and deducted UIF from the workers, he said: “Those payslips they showed you are probably old, I don’t know. It’s not your job to do this, stay out of it. It has nothing to do with you.”

Payslips seen by DispatchLIVE were dated February 2020.

Schwarz said he had applied for UIF but when DispatchLIVE told him that government labour records seen by DispatchLIVE  did not show the company had been paying anything towards the fund, he hung up.

DispatchLIVE phoned Helâ-Ise Schwarz, listed as the director in company records, who threatened to “stop filing the [employees’] UIF” if DispatchLIVE did not reveal its sources to her.

Helâ-Ise said there would be an internal investigation and accused the employees of lying.

The two Schwarzes said the payslips could have been Photoshopped, and demanded that DispatchLIVE hand over the slips in its possession.

DispatchLIVE sent ID numbers of two employees to the UIF for verification of the workers’ claims that the company was not paying the fund.

UIF spokesperson Lungelo Mkamba said their records showed that HaddPack Ltd had not paid a cent for the two employees towards the fund.

He added that some companies paid UIF via Sars.

“There is a possibility that HaddPack is paying monthly UIF contributions to Sars but submitting declarations of its workers to the UIF on a monthly basis, as required by the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act of 2016.

“We, however, require proof from the employer to confirm whether they are paying contributions to Sars,” Mkamba said.

On Thursday, DispatchLIVE requested HaddPack’s  documented interactions between it and the UIF.

The Schwarzes  said they would send these via e-mail but, by print deadline on Sunday, these had not been received.

HaddPack does not feature on the UIF’s list of companies whose employees would have been paid out.

The company allegedly promised workers in April they would be paid in May, but come May they have told workers they will be paid only in four years' time.

The labour department has been processing payments for companies across the country since mid-April.

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