The National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI) and Innovative Staffing Solutions (ISS) are at odds over the reporting of R2.59 billion in employee benefit funds.
ISS has raised questions about the council’s financial statements and the reporting of its Sick pay, holiday pay, leave pay and wellness funds. The council rejects the criticism, saying the money belongs entirely to industry employees and that its financial statements are audited.
The dispute follows an analysis commissioned by ISS of the council’s audited annual financial statements from 2018 to 2025. ISS obtained the statements after securing a punitive costs order against the NBCRFLI in the High Court. The application formed part of ISS’s ongoing legal challenge questioning the constitutionality of the council’s main collective agreement.
According to ISS’s analysis, some R2.59 billion in employee benefit funds was allegedly treated as the council’s own property in 2025. ISS said no separate financial statements or independent audits were compiled for the sick pay, holiday pay, leave pay and wellness funds.
The analysis also flagged what ISS described as combined deficits across the sick pay, holiday pay and leave pay funds of R35.8 million in 2021, R23.1 million in 2022 and R31.2 million in 2023.
“Every rand in its benefit funds belongs to a truck driver, a forklift operator or a warehouse worker. Workers should be able to see whether those funds remain properly ring-fenced, whether each fund can meet what it owes to workers, how income earned on that money is being used and whether it is being used for workers’ benefit,” said ISS Managing Director Arnoux Maré.
“The concern is not simply whether the funds are solvent today. Workers are entitled to understand why these deficits persisted and what has since been done to prevent them from recurring.”
ISS also questioned the reporting of the wellness fund. Its analysis found R78.5 million in investments as council assets without an equivalent liability while R364.5 million in contributions and R309.7 million in medical expenses appeared directly as council revenue and operational expenditure.
The analysis further found that the council earned R325 million in interest in 2025, compared with R148.1 million in levies, while employee costs reached R208.3 million.
The NBCRFLI rejected ISS’s claims and said it was not required to prepare separate financial statements for each fund.
“In line with the council’s Constitution, the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard, the Labour Relations Act, and the main collective agreement, council is not required to prepare individual and separate financial statements for each fund.”
External auditors examine the council and its benefit funds before issuing an opinion and the council has received unqualified audit opinions for a decade, the NBCRFLI said.
The council said total fund assets exceeded liabilities by R118 925 865 in 2023 and R4 572 969 in 2022 while breaking even in 2021. The wellness fund, which maintains its own general ledger, generated a net surplus of R22 394 773 in 2024/25, according to the council.
Using interest earnings to fund operational costs complies with clause 12(1) of its constitution and has allowed industry levies to remain unchanged for more than 10 years, the council said. R3.4 billion was disbursed to employees in 2025/26 with ring-fenced assets overseen by independent audit and investment committees, the council added.
The NBCRFLI described ISS’s claims as retaliatory following the council’s refusal to withdraw an industry circular concerning Maré. It also said a complaint ISS lodged with the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors yielded no findings of wrongdoing regarding its financial records.
