maternity leave were therefore unable to collect the full unemployment insurance
benefit they were entitled to under the previous UIA. The current UIA addresses this
anomaly by reducing the 26 weeks benefits to a maximum period of 17,32 weeks to
correspond to the 4-month period of leave provided for in the BCEA (section 24(4)).
8.3.3 Coverage
The current UIA (and Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act 4 of 2002 (UICA))
include certain categories of employees excluded from coverage under the previous
regime. In that respect it represents some improvement over the previous system.
The previous regime excluded many employees from coverage, the most notable
being high-income earners, domestic workers, public servants and migrant workers.
The current UIA and UICA extend coverage by including all employees working more
than 24
Page 161
hours a month. The inclusion of high-income earners seems to be primarily based on
the philosophy that their inclusion will help to strengthen the financial base of the
fund, and to help sustain the unemployed who were low-income earners through a
system of redistribution. However, the legislation still excludes certain categories of
employees from coverage. These are:
• learners under a learnership agreement;
• public servants (in both the provincial and national spheres of government);
and
• migrant workers who have to leave South Africa upon termination of the
contract of service, apprenticeship or learnership (section 3(1)).
In principle, all employees should be eligible for maternity benefits. The fact that
many categories are excluded from this benefit therefore raises some concerns.
First, learners and apprentices were included under the previous UIA, and their
exclusion from the current Act defies the current trend noticeable in labour — and
social security legislation towards extending rather than reducing coverage.
Copyright © 2006. Juta & Company, Limited. All rights reserved.
Second, commentators have pointed out that there seem to be no reasons of
principle for excluding public servants from coverage of the UIA. The traditional
rationale for exclusion, namely that public servants have job security and are
therefore not in need of protection, is no longer legally or factually true. Their
exclusion may even be open to constitutional challenge, because section 27(1)(c) of
the Constitution, grants the right of access to social security to everyone. (see
Marius Olivier & Esther van Kerken Comments: Unemployment Insurance Bill and
Unemployment Insurance Contributions Bill (January 2001) 4).
Third, the exclusion of domestic workers and seasonal workers from coverage by
Strydom, E. (2006). Essential social security law. Juta & Company, Limited.
Created from botswana-ebooks on 2024-05-01 11:43:10.
