BusinessLive reports that thousands of workers in the clothing manufacturing industry became the first in SA to receive payouts from the Covid-19 relief fund run by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).  

Marthie Raphael of the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry said the council received its first tranche of worker UIF funds on Friday “which was to compensate workers for loss of wages for the first full day of the lockdown, March 27, and which was the last day of that pay-week in the clothing industry”.  She went on to indicate:  “On the same day that the funds were received, these worker UIF monies were seamlessly transmitted from the bargaining council’s special dedicated Covid-19 bank account to the wage-bank accounts of 367 companies employing 38,751 employees”.  Vilina Membinkosi of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Satawu) said they were “very much excited” that their members have been the first in the country to tap into the Covid-19 relief fund.”  Meanwhile on Monday, Labour and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi said the Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (Ters) had paid a total of R1.1bn to workers in formal employment who had lost their income as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.  He reported that the UIF had received 55,268 benefit applications from employers representing about 1.6-million employees.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive

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