COSATU no letters, white background.jpg COSATU Parliamentary Office Press Release, 3 February 2016 Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill COSATU strongly supports and welcomes Government's Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill and urges Parliament to pass it as a matter of the highest priority. COSATU strongly supports the Bill's progressive objectives to: . Increase UIF benefits from 238 to 365 days. . Increase maternity leave benefits to 66%. . Cover workers who lost working hours due to reduced time at their work place. . Separate maternity from UIF benefits and claims. . Not exclude workers from UIF and maternity leave benefits if they are members of the Government Employees Pension Fund. . Inclusion of public servants under the UIF and thus be covered in the event of dismissal. . Include women who had miscarriages during the third trimester or a still born birth. . Allow the family and/ or nominated beneficiary of deceased claimant to receive their benefits. . Prohibit the charging of fees by any party to a UIF claimant. . Allow the Minister for Labour to issue regulations for domestic workers and employees of small businesses and enterprises to ensure that they are covered. Whilst strongly supporting this progressive bill, the clause excluding women who had abortions from maternity leave is unconstitutional, uncalled for, unwarranted and must be deleted with immediate effect. COSATU will not accept or allow any effort, intended or unintended, that may under women's hard won right to right to make their own choices. Government has agreed to COSATU's emphatic demand to open further engagements on how to expand access to the UIF and cover these missing areas. Lastly COSATU strongly urges Parliament to speedily pass the UIA Bill as it will literally save thousands of workers facing retrenchment and make the difference between saving their homes, providing food for their families, and even life and death for them. For further information, please contact: Matthew Parks COSATU Parliamentary Office Tel: 021 461 3835 Cell: 082 785 0687 Fax: 021 461 4034 Email: [email protected] 10th Floor, Plein Park Building 69 Plein Street, Cape Town 8000 From: http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=11333 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
