Agreement has been reached between the government, labour and business to extend the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/ Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) to employees affected by the level 4 lockdown, Cosatu’s delegate to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), Matthew Parks, said on Sunday.
Representatives of the social partners held meetings on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in which they agreed in principle to extend Ters benefits to affected workers on the same terms as previous payments, Parks said in an interview.
While employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi had agreed to the extension, the finer details are still being worked out and will need to be approved by the national coronavirus command council and the cabinet, Parks added.
Business, labour and the government had agreed to extend the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) Ters funding “for affected workers along the same sliding-scale payments regime as was used previously”, said Parks. “We are busy drafting an in-principle agreement and we are hopeful that in the next two weeks applications can begin.”
Nxesi said last week that Nedlac partners would work out a plan to provide income support for workers affected by the closure of their industries under the level 4 restrictions, which commenced on June 28.
The latest restrictions include a ban on liquor sales — the fourth since the end of March 2020 — as well as a prohibition on dining out in restaurants and restrictions to leisure travel and social gatherings.
“If you are going to impose restrictions on workers’ industries then there needs to be relief,” said Parks, adding that benefits for restaurant workers are particularly important given that most are paid on a daily, weekly or fortnightly basis. He also expressed concern for the tourism and hospitality sectors.
While Parks said no details are yet available on the number of workers who are likely to be covered by the Ters extension, or the total cost to the government, he estimated it would cost R1bn a month.
“A lot depends on how many people apply and how many people know about it,” he said.
“I would guesstimate about R1bn a month, but it all depends on the number of applications. Government is still doing the number crunching.”
The Ters scheme, established in March 2020 to cushion workers in the formal sector who suffered a loss of income during the pandemic, made payments to about 267,000 employers and 5.4-million employees at a cost of R58.7bn between April 2020 and March 2021. In October and November 2020, the cost of the Ters benefit to the UIF was averaging about R2bn a month.
Nxesi said after the announcement of level 4 lockdown restrictions that the UIF had sufficient funds to provide support for the two weeks the restrictions were initially expected to last. The UIF had an unaudited surplus of R39.2bn as at March 31 2021, about R54bn less than a year before, according to spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi.
However, Parks said based on presentations by medical experts it is possible that level 4 restrictions could be extended beyond the July 11 cut-off date that was initially envisaged. “The medical experts only expect this third wave to start dissipating in about mid-August.”
Martin Kingston, chair of the steering committee of Business for SA and the group’s representative at Nedlac, was unable to comment. With Luyolo Mkentane and Linda Ensor
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