Covid-19 - UIF process for Electrical Contractors

[GCE]

Hi

Thought I would stick this under the Electrical contracting forum since it is relevant to Electrical contractors only.
This particular process anyway - I am assuming that more Employers associations and Bargaining councils will follow suit.

There are going to be challenges obtaining the required information for submission and thought the thread could be a place to place questions an answers for contractors

The information is on the NBCEI website - http://www.nbcei.co.za/UIF.html - and I have loaded the circular for information - There are various templates on the website that need to be completed


National circular 03 April 2020 UIF COVID 19.pdf

[Dave A]

I'm adding a link to the article by Stephen Khola - COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE NATIONAL BARGAINING COUNCIL FOR THE ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY OF SOUTH AFRICA AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUND. Not only does this deal with the UIF claim processing initiative, but also sets out the relief given to employers and employees in respect of pension fund and other collective agreement related contributions.

Graham, I agree some aspects of this has me scratching my head. For example, are we expected to open a separate bank account dedicated for this?
If not, should we anyway?

[GCE]

The separate bank account issue appears to be for NBCEI only to show funds received and paid out to contractors - Looks like we only have to be able to show proof that we paid across to the employees.

The 3 months worth of certified bank statements is going to be a challenge and doesn't make sense when UIF already has monthly returns that would surely show red flags if you suddenly inflated salaries.Even easier would be to submit 3 months worth of EMP201.

[GCE]

We provided proof of payment batch for the wages paid to our staff and that seems to be acceptable vs supplying 3 months of bank statements .
Used the manual form instead of payroll forms which has also been accepted so far.
Thank goodness for copy and paste function which made it less painful

[GCE]

Hi
I see Pastel has finally released an update that will produce the report needed for TERS that should simplify things

The NBCEI has extended the submission date to the 22 April for electrical contractors to get on Board with the UIF claim

[Dave A]

The NBCEI has extended the submission date to the 22 April for electrical contractors to get on Board with the UIF claim

Is the window the grant application is for going to change with that? The last circular I got reported a claim period for 27th March through 7th April. With the application deadline extended to 22 April, we may as well claim right up to 30th April.

[GCE]

Not sure Dave - Will ask our connection .
NBCEI was having to adjust there collective agreement to include Covid and submit to DOL which I understood to be happening yesterday
Seems like the paperwork from NBCEI was not as str forward as originally envisaged.
At least they ,NBCEI , will actually have to work through the lock down and not cruise at idle speed.

[ians]

Did the application as an employer this afternoon... registered online ...logged in... downloaded the documents in xl format ...uploaded them to the laptop ...filled in the spaces...

UIF reference number :
shutdown from :
shutdown till :
trade name :
contact number :
email:
ID number:
Remuneration (monthly) :
employment start :
employment end :
sector min wage :
leave income :
bank name :
branch code :
account type :
account number :

**and PAYE number:

save as a CSV file and upload with a bank statement... and the employer document ...which is pretty much just the company and banking details.

done.

apparently 36 000 claims were rejected today due to people not saving the xl document in CSV format.

if the next page bombs out ...just go backspace and try again ..it works on the second attempt.

[Leecatt]

From today we are required to carry a new Essential Services Certificate which covers us for the extended lockdown period. The previous certificate became invalid yesterday.
The certificates will apparently be emailed to us in time or you can download it from the Bizhub

Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk

[ians]

I am still trying to figue out what to fill in ...this is why i pay a man to do this shyte for me ...i know for a fact that one of those many rejected applications was from me.

Someone posted that there is a pastel update ...i contacted the man about the update ...he had a look ...will send me a bill for a filling in all the spaces and send me a CSV file ready to upload to the uif site ...done and dusted.

I told him he should offer the service to all his customers ...everyone is happy to pau him.

[GCE]

Is the window the grant application is for going to change with that? The last circular I got reported a claim period for 27th March through 7th April. With the application deadline extended to 22 April, we may as well claim right up to 30th April.

NBCEI sent out a mail this morning with a new sheet and information required and that the claim date needs to be changed to the 30th

[GCE]

Seems like all the noise and promises from UIF in requesting Bargaining councils to assist with UIF claims was just noise in the same way that Government has requested company's to pay suppliers yet there own departments are not paying.

I have been supportive in Government efforts to " flatten the curve" but the Draconian measures that keep being put into place and the refusal to allow employers to think for themselves and no definite dates to actually start up are starting to shift my thoughts.
They want to have discussions on what day kids will be back to school yet parents need to sit at home without any expectation of dates to return to work- Where do they think the money comes from for school fees.

NBCEI have now put out a circular , which I have attached , which creates more confusion and shows up the weakness in the councils resolve to sort out problems.

Hopefully they actually get there act into gear and start looking at solving the problem rather then becoming part of the problem.

[ians]

GCE ...register online and apply as an employer.

Mine took around 10 days and once i figured out how to seperate the payout ...it is simple.

My employees have been paid ...the next question is can we claim for this month if you dont have enough work to let me return to work.

[GCE]

I was going to load directly but the system picks up that my UIF number has already been registered and has a claim submitted - Because NBCEI did it they have the registration details and passwords. Present communication is lacking from there side and have pasted the reply I received below.
Still waiting for the person to make contact

Good evening

We experienced, and are still experiencing, numerous issues with DOL/UIF regarding the claims we submitted. These issues are completely outside our control.

Your updated claim form(csv) was submitted on 24 April 2020, but subsequently DOL's online portal crashed and it seems to have been fixed late last week. It has come to our attention that files (csv’s) uploaded prior or during to the crash are either missing or reflects as invalid on the online portal. There were instances where we could connect during the crash and the uploads reflected as accepted. Nobody was aware that those uploads were in fact not accepted till after DOL made it public that their system had crashed or as they put it “temporary unavailable”. At the time it was thought that the difficulty connecting or loss of connection was due to high traffic.

This has also affected employers who did direct registration (we have had several employers inform us of this) and I do not know if DOL will fix those themselves or inform those employers to reload their information.

We set up a team nationally to deal with uploads of affected employers. From feedback in the Industry, and several conversations with UIF staff, the employers’ information will have to be reloaded per employer and per individual employee as the online portal does not accept re uploads of csv files or reflects the csv’s as incorrect

Elaine, who the team leader of the team mentioned above will be in contact with you regarding the individual employee uploads that has to be done.

[Dave A]

Like Graham, I have found that I can't register my electrical company on the online site because the company has already been registered.

If the only way to solve the problem is to do the "add each employee manually" method, I suggest the most viable solution is the NBCEI give each employer their own log in credentials so that we can get on with it. Seems we are invited to go our own way for claims from 1st May. To do so they are going to have to give us log-in credentials anyway...