BDLive reports that new legislation providing for the merger of statutes that provide compensation for occupational diseases could be tabled in Parliament before the end of 2016.
Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Godfrey Oliphant said on Friday on the sidelines of a summit on the integration of the legislation that a unified compensation system would be only part of a wide-ranging solution to deal with the effect of occupational lung diseases in SA. The aim of the summit was to integrate the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act (ODMWA) and the Compensation for Occupational Diseases and Injuries Act (COIDA). ODMWA falls under the Department of Health, while COIDA falls under the Department of Labour’s Compensation Fund. ODMWA benefits for mineworkers have been seen as inferior, as it is rooted in apartheid-era legislation. Attempts to integrate the two funds fell through in 1999.
- Read this report by Karl Gernetzky in full at BDLive
- Read too, Compensation integration a welcome development, says Chamber of Mines, at Mining Weekly
- And also, SADC discusses inequality in mineworkers’ compensation, at SABC News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page