Cape Argus reports that industries and businesses across the Western Cape have been warned to expect inspectors from the Department of Employment & Labour (DEL) to visit soon.

The visits are part of ongoing inspections with regard to compliance with the Employment Equity Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act and National Minimum Wage Act. Lack of compliance by employers led to hundreds of prosecutions in the last financial year. Principal inspector Desmond Brown said the DEL’s Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) in the province had recovered R2.5 million, by way of fines, during inspections conducted over the 2021/2022 financial year for non-compliance with labour legislation. Brown told reporters that of the 30,252 inspections conducted, a total of 8,809 workplaces had been found to be non-compliant and of those, 804 were referred for prosecution. Brown reported with respect to inspections conducted in terms of compliance with the Unemployment Insurance Act legislation, that of 2,428 inspections, 1,195 employers were found to have been non-compliant and of those, 257 were referred for prosecution, with the inspectorate recovering R579,762.21. Meanwhile, UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping said that as a result of media reports about employers being arrested and appearing in court for Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) related fraud, more employers were now returning monies to the UIF of their own accord. He said R3.4 billion had been voluntarily returned to the fund by employers who had wrongly benefited from the Covid-19 TERS scheme.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mwangi Githahu at Cape Argus

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