Cosatu demands UIF benefits for taxi workers 29-04-08

 

COSATU demands UIF benefits for taxi workers

The Congress of South African Trade Unions condemns the KwaZulu-Natal Transport Alliance for its decision not to register its employees with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). Not only is this illegal, but it deprives taxi drivers and conductors of benefits, which will have severe consequences for the workers if they should lose their jobs.

Taxi drivers are forced to work long hours to earn a minimal wage and it is intolerable that they should also be deprived of a benefit to which they are legally entitled.

COSATU rejects the argument advanced by the Alliance's chairperson that they "do not need to register their employees with the UIF as they do not receive a government subsidy". The issue of a subsidy has nothing to do with their responsibility as employers.

COSATU demands that the employers comply with the law and register with the UIF, and that, should they fail to do so that they be prosecuted and punished.