Compensation fund in chaos

Managerial chaos in the office of the Workmen's Compensation Fund Commissioner is resulting in the neglect of workers' rights.

This is the opinion of Paula Howell of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC).

Howell represents workers who have been injured while on duty and await compensation from the Compensation Commissioner, a position established in terms of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act.

Contributions to the compensation fund are made by employers through levies.

"The commissioner's office and the Department of Labour have no commitment to a well-operated compensation scheme," said Howell, who handles around 200 claims at any given time.

Some 300 000 claims are lodged annually but failure by employers to file an accident report and inefficiency mean that many gather dust in the commissioner's office.

Some employers hesitate to file reports of accidents because if the number of accidents is higher than the average for the industry, the levy is increased.

Frustrated with the situation, the LRC took the Compensation Commissioner and the Labour Minister to court last year to deal with about a quarter of a million claims where employers had not filed reports and which had not been investigated.

Some employers filed reports that were never investigated. The commissioner's office agreed to process all the claims and to put in place procedures to speed up operations.

But Howell said a call centre put in place after the agreement had hindered communication between the commissioner's office and claimants or their lawyers.

"With the call centre in place, the commissioner's staff have managed to shield themselves from public scrutiny while they continue, unsupervised," said Howell.

Spoor said the Compensation Fund contributed significantly to the unacceptably high rates of occupational injuries in SA, because "it gives employers immunity - it's a licence to kill and maim workers because regardless of how many employees are injured or killed", the employers can just continue paying their levies.

According to Howell, many officers dealing with claims are not properly trained.

"The main problem is the culture within the commissioner's office in that it assumes that its duty is to the employer only," Howell said.

"They are hostile to the worker," said Spoor.

The office has been riddled with staff problems. Acting Commissioner Phineas Mothebe has replaced acting commissioner Nerine Kahn but there has been no permanent commissioner for months.

Howell said the Act should be revised in favour of employees.

"If the legislation allowed an employee the opportunity of suing the employer directly, then the current mismanagement of the scheme would impact less on injured employees.

"Employers would also be more vigilant and the whole system would work much better," Howell said.

"We need to bring our legislation in line with the rest of the civilised world," said Spoor. He called the law archaic and said it was prejudicial to unskilled and manual labourers who did not have the resources to take the issue to court.

Trade unions had failed to take up the issue of workers' compensation and were also responsible for the continued suffering of the victims of work-related injuries and diseases, "who are the poorest of the poor", he said.

The spokesperson for the Compensation Officer, Thami Mchunu, has failed to respond to questions sent to him by the Pretoria News more than a week ago.