Government reintroduces TERS following move to Adjusted Alert Level 4

The recent migration to Adjusted Alert Level 4 in South Africa has necessitated Government having to reintroduce its TERS initiatives.

Employment and Labour minister Thulas Nxesi has gazetted a new directive, paving the way for the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to implement a third extension of the Covid-19 TERS benefit which comes into effect today, Monday 19 July 2021. Whilst the UIF will be opening their systems to receive applications from today, payments are only envisaged to be made from Monday, 26 July 2021.

The caveat to the reintroduced TERS payments is that payments will be effected directly into the banking accounts of the workers, and not to employers. This is a significant departure from previous methods of TERS payments. The UIF will, however, and only in exceptional circumstances, pay monies to the employer for onward transmission to the employee. The latter mode will be at the discretion of the UIF Commissioner. Employers will, however, still be expected to claim on behalf of their employees.

The DoEL indicated that the third phase of TERS will result in bringing relief to the following categories of workers/employees:

• Workers who have not been able to work since 16 March 2021 due to Level 1, 2, and 3 restrictions which have prevented gatherings of a certain number of people – such as in the entertainment industry;

• Workers who were and/or are still impacted upon by the Level 4 restrictions which commenced on 28 June 2021;

• Workers who have not been able to work due to the fact that they are over the age of 60 or have co-morbidities and have not been able to work in that period, as well as those who have had to isolate or go into quarantine.

Minister Nxesi’s announcement three weeks ago that the department was intending to extend benefits to those sectors affected by the Adjusted Alert Level 4 restrictions triggered the latest directive. This was underscored by President Cyril Ramaphosa when, on 11 July 2021, he announced that the UIF had embarked on negotiations with NEDLAC to address the difficulties faced by employees who had lost their incomes whilst under Level 4 restrictions.

The application process and the information or documents required are the same as with the previous extensions, save for, as alluded to above, the processing of payments directly into the employees’ accounts.

“It is, therefore, crucial for employers to provide valid and accurate details of their employees including identity document numbers and valid banking account details,” said Advocate Mzie Yawa, acting UIF Commissioner.

“We have learnt the lesson from the previous phases that some unscrupulous employers did not advance the funds to their employees, and it is for that reason that we have opted for this mode of payment”.

“As a result of the non-payment of workers, the UIF and the entire department were inundated with a lot of complaints as workers could see in the system that funds had been released but had not been paid by their employers who kept the Covid TERS funds for themselves,” said Yawa.

The (current) extended TERS directive will end on Sunday, 25 July 2021.

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