Most companies are not applying for the COVID-19 Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Temporary Employee Relief Scheme.
This is according to a study conducted by the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Centre for Social Change and the Casual Workers’ Advice Office.
It is based on analysis of 75 companies ranging from large to small and medium enterprises.
The study also indicates that companies that are still operating are largely failing to provide basic or adequate health and safety services.
It has found that many employers are instead forcing workers to take paid or unpaid leave.
The UJ’s Professor Carin Runciman says workers’ income will be severely affected.
Runciman says, “At 30 companies there was no PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), 29 had not taken measures to ensure social distancing and 22 had not provided sanitizers. The report found of the 40 companies that seized operation only nine had applied for special UIF coved 19 temporary employee/employer relief scheme to assist workers, most employers are shifting the econ burden of the crisis on the workers forcing them to take paid or unpaid leave despite the Minister asking them not to do this.”
Below is the full study:
Final Employer Responses to Covid Report (Text)
Africa could lose 20 million jobs due to pandemic
About 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa as the continent’s economies are projected to shrink in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according an African Union (AU) study.
So far, Africa accounts for just a fraction of total cases of the disease which has infected more than one million people worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.
But African economies are already facing an impending global economic downturn, plummeting oil and commodity prices and an imploding tourism sector.
In this video below, UN concerned about COVID-19 impact in Africa:
Additional reporting by Reuters
