Dave, what became of this thread? Did you get anywhere?

I would truly appreciate feedback as the electrical bargaining council has now decided to come and do a spot check on our company. We are a small family run aircon company with 12 employees. We have suffered from severe, severe fraud/theft this year and have had to retrench 2 employees due to these losses.

Now the EBC has threatened us with" If you dont deduct the fees from your employees, we will close your company". I thought these people are meant to be fighting for our employees rights? But they are so quick to take away our employees jobs? Its ridiculous.

We, as the employer, do not mind at all paying our half of the prescribed fees. If you have employees these fees are to be incurred.
BUT - our employees do not wish to belong to this council!! They cannot afford to pay over money to a pension/provident fund. I know I would go ballistic if someone told me I must now pay a percentage of my wages over to a pension fund. Im 23. I need to use every last cent of my paycheck in order to survive. The government has declared the country is in a recession. Times are hard. Not many people can afford to save anymore. And now they are literally forcing them. So maybe they wont have enough food this month or be able to afford enough nappies or doctors visits but yippy, they will have a provident fund. This is their money!!! And they are pleading with me to find a way not to deduct it. Everywhere I turn to, all I hear is I will have to find a labour law specialist. Our company cannot afford that right now.


Please let me know if you found a loophole or got advice.
I dont know how to face our employees at the end of this wage month.
They dont understand. All they see is more money being deducted.
The turnover of unskilled workers in the aircon trade is high and most of the guys will never claim their funds.