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Representatives from the Compensation Fund yesterday briefed the Labour Portfolio Committee on its Strategic Plan for the 2012/2013 year. We were disappointed to see that the bar which the Fund – which provides financial support for workers when they get sick or injured at work – has set itself is extremely low.

These so-called “targets” are:

To only process 80% of new applications to the Compensation Fund within two months of registration. This means that one in five applicants will wait longer than the prescribed time period.
To only process 65% of applications for increases in compensation within two months of receiving the applications.
To only process 65% of objections to claims within two months of receiving applications.
To only place three media adverts as its communication strategy for the year. This is completely inadequate since many workers are not fully informed about the rights and privileges that the Compensation Fund offers them.
To only provide assistance to 70% of people who phone in, write in and e-mail the Fund for assistance.

It would appear that the Compensation Fund has chosen to keep its targets low in order to create the illusion that it is performing well. But this does not represent real success. Real success can only be achieved when the Fund fully delivers on its mandate by providing financial support to all those who apply on legitimate grounds.

I will today be writing to the Minister of Labour, Mildred Oliphant, to request that she appear before the Portfolio Committee to discuss these unacceptably low targets.

Last year roughly 70 000 applications submitted to the Fund remained unprocessed by the end of the year. Real success can only be achieved once all people who are injured at work receive the funding they are entitled to. Those are basic workers’ rights that should not be compromised.

When people get injured or sick at work, they should not be left to fend for themselves for months on end. Compensation for injury in the workplace is a basic workers’ right and an important part of our social safety net. We must do what we can to make sure that people get what is owed to them.