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Tim Hughes, spokesperson for the Injured Workers’ Action Group, writes that the government has gone rogue in gazetting “draconian, irrational and unreasonable” regulations pertaining to the Compensation Fund.
He notes that the day after parliament rose for recess, Department of Employment & Labour (DEL) Minister Thulas Nxesi “cynically abused his executive power to avoid oversight and evade public scrutiny” by gazetting the regulations. The details of the regulations are simple, but their implications are said to be wide-ranging. On 30 September, the right of medical service providers to use the services of third-party pre-funding administrators to maintain their cash flow, keep their practices solvent and allow them to treat injured workers while not having to wait two years for payment will be removed. It is said that the consequences will be dire. Most importantly, many medical service providers will reluctantly cease treating injured workers as they will simply be unable to afford to. Hughes opines that trade union and employer bodies will be outraged by the regulations and will lobby intensively to have them removed. “An element of the rotten Compensation Fund that works efficiently, namely third-party administrators, risks being put out of business by the regulations, thereby potentially hastening the collapse of the fund itself,” writes Hughes. He emphasises that for the sake of injured workers, medical service providers and employers “these disastrous, irrational and possibly illegal regulations must be withdrawn before it is too late.”
Read the full original of the opinion piece in the above regard at BusinessLive
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