Solidarity launches public protest campaign against Compensation Commissioner

Trade union Solidarity today launched a protest campaign against the Compensation Commissioner. This comes after the Office of the Compensation Commissioner in a recent news report prided itself on its efficient system while many employees, including around 800 Solidarity members, have been waiting for years for the finalisation of their claims against the Compensation Fund.

In a letter sent to the commissioner on Friday, Solidarity demanded that the commissioner take efficient steps to provide a proper service to workers as a matter of urgency. Solidarity is of the opinion that service delivery from the Compensation Commissioner's office has shown signs of serious decay for the past ten years or so.

Paul Mardon, Solidarity's Head of Occupational Health and Safety, says Solidarity has brought its concerns about poor service delivery to the commissioner's attention on many an occasion. "So far, there has been no attempt from the commissioner to improve his office's service delivery. Since the implementation of the Umehluko system few, if any, compensation payments have been made to any of the persons Solidarity represents - notwithstanding the fact that claims have been approved for payment," Mardon says.

Mardon also says Solidarity is currently supporting about 800 of its members with claims against the Compensation Commissioner, and is extremely concerned about the delays in finalising those claims. "The claimants are people with families who have endured the trauma of serious injury or disease and many of them are unable to continue their work. Medical bills pile up because medical professionals are not prepared to wait for years to be paid by the Compensation Office," Mardon says.

According to Mardon Solidarity is greatly concerned about the health and safety of its members and of workers in general and, therefore, it places a high premium on it. "As proof of our commitment, Solidarity has established an Occupational Health and Safety Division dedicated to promoting the health and safety of workers and to alleviate the negative consequences of occupational diseases and injuries suffered".

The public campaign against the Compensation Commissioner's poor service delivery will include, among others, thousands of messages of protest sent to the Compensation Commissioner and the Director General of the Department of Labour, Thobile Lamati. Solidarity will also use Facebook and Twitter to gain public support for the campaign.

The public can send letters of protest about the Compensation Commissioner's poor service delivery to Solidarity through the web site, www.solidarity.co.za. Another way to record protest is to SMS "Compensate" to 34802. An SMS costs R2 and will be added to the messages of protest.

Summary of two of Solidarity members' cases:

Martin Badenhorst was injured in August 2010. His employer paid him until 15 November 2011. He submitted a claim for loss of income to the Compensation Commissioner. Mr Badenhorst subsequently received two payments and a third payment is still outstanding. The commissioner has not made a final decision regarding permanent disability. Mr Badenhorst has lost his home and vehicle because of the delay with the commissioner's payment. The necessary documents had to be submitted several times, but the last time enquiries were made about the progress of his claim, there was no record of his documents on the commissioner's system.

Koos Cronje was injured in 2007 and reports were submitted to the Compensation Commissioner. The scanning of the reports was a problem at the time and the documents had to be resubmitted several times. Mr Cronje's claim was reopened for a complete knee replacement. The final report following the reopening of his claim was submitted to the commissioner by hand on 3 October 2013. Solidarity only received the final decision regarding permanent disability on 29 January 2015.

Text of letter from Paul Mardon, Head: Occupational Health and Safety, Solidarity, to Compensation Commissioner, February 3 2015:

OPEN LETTER: CALL FOR IMMEDIATE AND EFFECTIVE IMPROVEMENT OF COMPENSATION OF OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES AND DISEASES SERVICES BY THE OFFICE OF THE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER

30 January 2015

1. Solidarity is a trade union duly registered in terms of the Labour Relations Act and representing workers in various industries, including mining, iron and steel, telecommunications, electrical and chemical. Solidarity places very high premium on the health and safety of its members and of workers in general and has established an Occupational Health and Safety Department dedicated to promoting the health and safety of workers at the workplace and to alleviate the negative consequences of occupational diseases and injuries suffered by Solidarity members. As part of their membership benefits, Solidarity's Injury on Duty Office assists members of Solidarity free of charge with their claims for occupational diseases and injuries. Solidarity is currently assisting approximately 800 members with their claims at the Compensation Fund and is greatly concerned because in the majority of these cases, no, little or slow progress is made with the finalisation thereof.

2. Section 27(1)(c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, grants South Africans the right to social security, which right is embodied in and administered through, amongst others, the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, Act No. 130 of 1993, as amended. These Acts confirms the utmost importance that employees who find themselves in the unfavourable situation of being harmed by occupational injuries or diseases, be duly protected against financial distress and in applicable cases be compensated fairly, both in amount and manner. In Molefe v Compensation Commissioner and Another (25579/05) [2007] ZAGPHC 365, Seriti J confirmed that from the viewpoint of an individual, social security entails legislated "prescribed entitlements, qualifying conditions and procedural guarantees". However, failure to provide proper and effective compensation services for occupational injuries or diseases not only undermines the constitutional right to social security, but also undermines other fundamental constitutional rights, such as the right to equality and human dignity.

3. During the past approximately 10 years, the Compensation Fund has experienced many internal challenges that prevented the Fund from fulfilling its legislative mandate optimally, which resulted in a decline in service delivery by the Fund. During a meeting with Solidarity on 13 September 2013, Solidarity gave and discussed a list of these challenges with the Compensation Commissioner. During this meeting and in the Compensation Commissioner's annual reports of the past years, the Compensation Commissioner acknowledged the challenges experienced by the Compensation fund in providing effective compensation services to workers and promised to take steps to improve the service delivery by the Compensation Fund.

4. The challenges experienced with service delivery at the Compensation Fund is seriously detrimental for claimants, who often lose their work and are left without income as they are often unable to work due to their occupational injuries and diseases. Claimants often have to wait for many years without any compensation and income. Doctors refuse to treat workers who suffered occupational injuries and diseases and also refuse to give evidence on behalf of claimants at hearings of the Compensation Fund because they must wait for years to get any payment from the Compensation Fund or because of inadequate remuneration for time spent at the hearings.

5. Some steps were taken to address these challenges, such as the decentralisation of the Compensation Fund offices and the implementation of the new claims management system called "Umehluko" from 4 August 2014, which provides for the online submission of accident reports by employers and medical reports and invoices by medical service providers. It also allows the Fund to electronically adjudicate and pay compensation benefits and refunds to employers. These steps, however, were not enough:

5.1  Many of the service delivery challenges previously experienced by workers and by Solidarity and discussed during the meeting of 13 September 2013 still remain unresolved and have even become worse, such as;

5.1.1 In many cases it takes a long time to register the awards on the system after the claims have been administered, so that the banking details of the claimant can be submitted. This causes an undue delay en huge frustration with claimants.

5.1.2 In spite of promises by the Compensation Commissioner during 2013 that the problems with the call centres shall be addressed, the call centres remain a problem as they often do not answer the telephones. It often takes longer than 45 minutes before calls are answered, and when the calls are answered, the person at the call centre side often just remain quiet and does not speak, or merely ends the call. This happens repeatedly every day. When calls are taken, incorrect information is often given by the call centre personnel.

5.2  The decentralisation of the Compensation Fund offices has created its own challenges, particularly the challenge that Solidarity often received no reply to their enquiries directed to the regional offices and that inquiries to the relevant regional offices are merely referred to the head office, whilst the head office refers the same enquiries to the regional offices, without any of these offices being willing to deal with the enquiry.

5.3  The implementation of the Umehluko system has also created further challenges, such as:

5.3.1 Employees and trade unions representing workers are effectively excluded from submitting documents to the Compensation Fund, as they could have done in the past. Only employers and doctors can register on the system and submit documents and employees and we have been informed by personnel at the Compensation Fund that the Fund intends to "get rid of third parties" such as Solidarity who acts on behalf of claimants. Employees are now dependant on the goodwill of employers for the submission of document, but employers do not always cooperate, especially where the employee is no longer in the service of that employer. Employees are party to and stakeholders in social insurance systems such as the compensation for occupational injuries and diseases system and may not be excluded. The right of employees to submit claims and documentation in support of their claims is recognised by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, Act No. 130 of 1993, and by our courts and they may not be excluded from participating as a full partner in the social insurance system.

5.3.2 We were informed by personnel of the Compensation Fund that their refusal to receive documentation from or on behalf of claimants is because only employers and doctors can submit documents and that they must do so via the Umehluko system. This is totally unacceptable; even the authors of the Umehluko system, to wit, the Rand Mutual Assurance, accepts documentation by and on behalf of claimants and they then scan such documentation onto their system.

5.3.3 Written requests for chronic medication for claimants are not considered anymore. The Compensation Fund only accepts such requests submitted online by doctor, whilst many doctors refuse to do so. This prejudices the claimant as they cannot get their chronic medication, through no fault of their own. No provisions have been made for transitional arrangements until all doctors have come on board with the new system.

5.3.4 Employees and trade unions who act on behalf of employees do not have access to the Umehluko system to monitor the progress with a claim.

5.3.5 No compensation payments have been made to any persons who Solidarity represents since the implementation of the Umehluko system, in spite of claims being ready for payment.

5.4  For more than a year Solidarity has received no faxes from the Compensation Fund and we have been informed by personnel at the Compensation Fund that the fax machines at the Fund have been out of order. It also seems as if some of the personnel do not know how to send documents by email. This results in Solidarity and claimants not receiving vital documents such as finalisation letters.

5.5  No progress is being made with the finalisation of claims and documents submitted to the fund before the implementation of the Umehluko system and acceptance of both hard and electronic copies of documentation were refused by the Compensation Fund since the introduction of the Umehluko system.

6. The abovementioned challenges and the failure of the Compensation Fund to provide an effective compensation system, flies in the face of the Department of Labour's values of respecting and promoting client centred services, accountability and living the Batho Pele principles. In following the old yet very relevant adage of "justice delayed is justice denied" we submit that both justice and dignity are being denied die claimants by this failure of the Compensation Fund.

7. In view of the above, Solidarity calls on the Compensation Commissioner to take effective and immediate action to provide an affective compensation service to workers and to ensure that the concerns as discussed with the Compensation Commissioner on 13 September 2013 as well as the abovementioned concerns are forthwith effectively addressed.

8. A copy of this letter shall also be sent to:

8.1  the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Labour, the Hon. Minister of Labour and the Director General of the Department of Labour with a request for their intervention in the Compensation Fund and to hold the Compensation Commissioner accountable for proper service delivery by the Compensation Fund; and

8.2  the media.

9. We look forward to your prompt and positive reaction to our call.

PAUL MARDON

HEAD: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SOLIDARITY

Issued by Solidarity, February 3 2015

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