Metal company accused of hoarding pension deductions
Bargaining Council takes action
The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council has asked its lawyers to take action against Metal Allsorts for failing to pay money deducted from workers’ salaries to their pension fund.
The secretary general of the Council, Thulani Mthiyane, asked lawyers to write to Metal Allsorts to ask the company to pay over the money, and to report the company, its management and owners to the police for contravention of the Pension Fund Act.
This follows complaints by eight Metal Allsorts workers to immigrants’ rights organisation PASSOP and The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).
The Montague Gardens company specialises in steel fabrication and employs about 18 people.
The workers complained that the company had not passed on workers’ provident fund contributions for April, May, June, July, August and December last year and had also not passed on any contributions this year to the Metal Industries Benefit Fund Administrators.
Mthiyane asked his lawyers to send a legal letter to Metal Allsorts “and ask them to urgently
forward all Pension and Provident Fund contributions deducted from employees salaries to MIBFA”.
“Please further note that this company and its management, directors and owners must in terms of 13a of Pension Fund act be reported to the nearest SAPS,” he said.
Workers also complained about dirty and dangerous working conditions, a lack of protective clothing, and inadequate wages. They said they had previously complained to the bargaining council without success.
Numsa organiser Thabo Mbebe said the company had admitted at a meeting in September that it was not compliant with Metal Industry Benefit Fund Administrators rules and had promised to pay over the provident fund money, with interest. Management promised to negotiate payment plans with the bargaining council.
Contacted by email and by telephone, Kim Benfield of Metal Allsorts refused to comment, other than to say that the matter of provident fund deductions had been “sorted” with the employees concerned. She asked for the names of the employees who had been interviewed by GroundUp, which we did not provide.
© 2016 GroundUp. 
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