NUMSA launches campaign against bulking of workers’ subs

By Celeste Ganga
30 August 2007

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), on Wednesday at its financial conference, launched a campaign against defaulting employers and service- providers who fail to pay provident fund contributions, union membership fees and other levies to the bargaining council.

“The steel and engineering sector and some motor and retail companies’ weekly payments of the provident funds subscriptions, funeral benefits and legislated bargaining council levies is seeping away, “ says NUMSA national spokesperson, Mziwakhe Hlangani.

He adds that this is due to delinquent companies who draw interests from non-payments of these monies after deducting them from employers’ wages.

“Some of these companies have defaulted payments after deducting them from workers’ weekly wages, since 1998, “ says Hlangani.

The aim of the conference is to sketch out plans to retrieve more than R40 million from the employers and labour brokers, who failed to pay these monies to the bargaining councils.

“The financial conference heralds the government’s social security reform programme which is intended to provide national pension saving schemes for millions of workers,” says Hlangani.