It surely can’t be long before the country’s major metalworkers union hit sham employers who owed about R52 million on workers’ subscription contributions and bargaining council dues.
About 900 companies owed about R52 million on union membership fees and related employers’ legislated bargaining council levies, a study by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) information technology specialists has disclosed.
Thousands of NUMSA members, as a result, who are also covered under the union’s funeral policy membership scheme, have also fallen into two or three year’s arrears. And, the companies which deducted subscription fees, but failed to transfer the funds over to the union account would be liable to settle the workers funeral claims, NUMSA chief national legal officer Booysen Mashigo has warned.
In fact, NUMSA information technology and legal units have almost done it. A number of companies have been issued with summons to appear in court for failing to transfer the union subscription payments to the union. Two smaller engineering companies-Lafron Plating and Infast Tools are among the several defaulting companies which were summoned to court for non-payments.
Mashego said the union has been battling to collect workers subscriptions which Lafron in Industria deducted from workers wages from 2004 until now but management refused to cooperate with the union. The company is also demanded to pay the interest at 15, 5% for three years on R15 157 for each year.
Infast Tools, in Cleveland deducted monies from NUMSA members since March 2003 and it (company) has allegedly failed to pay the dues over to the union up to this day.
Out of a total of 4352 motor, garage workshops retail, electrical and engineering companies which paid employees’ subscription contributions directly in to the union account, 900 were found to have defaulted payments for the past three years.
At least 1336 companies paid the union contributions through Motor Industry Bargaining Council (MIBCO) and Motor Industry Benefits Fund Agency (MIBFA) before they (the funds) were directed to the union account.
Some engineering companies were also found to be fraudulently deducting workers’ weekly union contributions, but deposited the funds into separate slush accounts to raise capital interests before they were paid back to union accounts after regular letters of demands were issued by the union.
“It’s goullish, sick situation. Some of the companies make it a point that they deduct union subs from workers and raise interests recurrently for three to six months before they were reminded with letters of demands by the union and paid without interests,” Lucas Mthiyane, NUMSA metal and engineering sector co-coordinator said.
And, the union is not only stuck up with unpaid subscription fees, but it has identified a further R12 million transferred in the union accounts yearly which were not allocated to any companies because of administrative blunders committed by the bargaining councils. It has been discovered that the bargaining council’s flawed processing system resulted in the funds not being separated from agency shop fee and workers’ subscriptions.
NUMSA’s next move is to reinforce its joint initiative with the bargaining councils to identify the companies and take them to court if they have no other means of settling the arrear debts.
For more information contact Mziwakhe Hlangani, NUMSA national information officer
Cell Phone: 082 940 7116