HR 101 - What to do When . . . You Are Not Sure About Workmen’s Compensation? – Part 3

 HR 101 - What to do When . . . You Are Not Sure About Workmen’s Compensation? – Part 3

By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd

Please note that this pertains to South African Labour Relations and Best Practice requirements. 

You are now registered with Workmen’s Compensation and are in the process of submitting your Return of Earnings, but somehow though, you don’t feel that the tariffs used to calculate your assessment is 100% correct for what it is that you do.  Is there anything you can do about it?  Of course, there is.  As in most things in life – not everything is a 100% fit!

The Commission has the authority to vary the rates that apply to your specific Company based on a whole bunch of criteria.

What you need to do now is get a Commissioner involved to do an assessment on your Company.  If the Commission is of the opinion that your business is structured and set up in such a way to make it highly unlikely that any accidents would occur and that if perchance there was an accident, that it would be highly likely that they would occur far less often and be of a far less serious nature, than in another similar business, the Director-General of the Commission may allow your business to be rated at a much lower rate.

Be aware though, that in life, as there is an ‘upswing’ so too there is a ‘downswing’ because if the Commission finds that you are not really as organized or safe as you thought you were and that in fact, it is far more likely that your staff will have more accidents and more serious accidents than in another similar business, they also have the right and the responsibility to increase the rate that you would have been charged.  So make sure that you have all of your ducks in a row!

The annual fees are due and payable within 30 days of the receipt of their ‘Notice of Assessment’.  Should you have cash flow problems, however, you can make arrangements with the Commissioner to pay the assessment fee in instalments. 

Currently, there are 3 acceptable payment methods – they are cheque, direct deposit and internet banking.

If you pay by cheque, the remittance advice part of the notice of assessment must be included with the cheque.  Don’t forget to write your reference numbers at that the back of the cheque.

Paying by direct deposit means that you will have to make a trip to ABSA bank, however, payment can be made at any branch.  If possible use the deposit slip that is attached to your notice of assessment as it already has all your reference numbers printed on it.  If you use a generic deposit slip though, remember to write your reference numbers on the deposit slip.  Always retain your deposit slip as proof of payment.

When paying by internet banking, be sure to include all the relevant information that is required by your financial institution as well as the correct reference number of your assessment.

The banking details of the Compensation fund are always included with your assessment.

Next week we will look at what happens when you fail to make payment.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or www.viljoenconsulting.co.za