The SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has been ordered to pay an employee’s arrears provident fund contributions, plus interest, after it failed to pay them on his behalf in terms of its agreement with the fund.
The disgruntled employee complained to the Pension Funds Adjudicator, Muvhango Lukhaimane, that his employer, Satawu, had failed to pay contributions on his behalf to the Satawu National Provident Fund. The complainant’s fund credit was R37 897.47 as of July 29.
The fund submitted that a submission had been made to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for the suspension of contributions for the period February 2019 to August 2021 to allow the fund to recover from “the errant activities of the fund’s previous leadership”. The submissions to the FSCA remain pending.
Satawu submitted that it had financial constraints and was negotiating with the fund to repay the outstanding contributions. It also undertook to report back to the adjudicator within 30 days from April 20, which it failed to do. They had also indicated that as of August 3, the employer had failed to pay the outstanding contributions, despite there being an agreement in place for its repayment.
Lukhaimane ordered Satawu to submit outstanding contribution schedules to the fund in respect of the complainant for the period November 2015 to July 2018, November 2018 to March 2021, and September 2021 to July 2022. The fund was ordered to compute the arrear contributions due by the employer, together with late payment interest. She ordered Satawu to pay to the fund the arrear contributions, together with late payment interest.
