Covid-19 - UIF process for Electrical Contractors

[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...

[GCE]

It seems that the changes to NBCEI collective agreement has finally been gazetted ( attached) which should mean that MOA will now be accepted and hopefully payment forth coming

[Dave A]

Thanks for the feedback. Here's hoping that was the cause of the log jam and there are no other obstacles ahead.

[Dave A]

Here's a new game to play if you're in the mood.

Go to https://uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19/

Click on My Payment Status
Enter NBCEISA in the capture box.
Scroll down the list to find and select your company's UIF number.
To warm things up, here is my electrical company's result -

[GCE]

Have the same problem - Only consolation is that my UIF number is there and logged
I see the couple I checked are all zero payments - Hopefully thety are being dealt with as a collective

[GCE]

Has anybody received UIF money through the NBCEI application system
Has anybody that has not received through NBCEI actually heard from Council

If I log in I get the same message that Dave got , processed but zero amount - Checked some of my guys ID's on the system which shows they are not registered

Check some friends ID's on the system and it shows the amount they were paid and the date

Starting to look like NBCEI has failed miserable in there mandate