Women, especially nurses and other frontline healthcare workers, are bearing the brunt of COVID-19, the Compensation Fund says. Labour department spokesperson Teboho Thejane said more than 80% of claims lodged for medical aid costs in all provinces were from women. According to TimesLIVE, Thejane said the fund has received 941 claims to date with the highest number coming from the Western Cape, which has recorded 657 claims. Of the 941 claims, 533 are from women.
In the Eastern Cape, 99 claimants are women out of a total of 127 claims received. In KZN, 98 claims were received with a total of 92 women affected. A total of 46 out of 54 claimants were women in Gauteng. Limpopo and North West have recorded two claims each, both of which were from women, while Mpumalanga has recorded one claim, also from a woman.
Thejane said to date the fund has paid out just over R200 000 in medical aid costs. He said other claims were received through Rand Mutual and Federated Employers, bringing the overall total to 1,435 claims received.
“We are aware that our front-line workers like nurses and other medical staff have been affected by the pandemic. We will like to send the appeal for employers to ensure that workers are adequately protected and are given the necessary protective gear to do their jobs,” Employment & Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi said.
Meanwhile, Nxesi said the department’s inspection and enforcement services have “upped” their in-loco inspections and compliance rates were hovering at 57% for the private sector and 47% for the public sector. He said the public sector has been served with a total of 88 prohibitions (shutdowns), 363 contraventions and 87 improvement notices while the private sector has seen 45 prohibitions, 339 improvement notices and 1,210 contraventions.
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-07-09-women-including-nurses-most-affected-by-covid-19-at-work-compensation-fund/"]Full TimesLIVE report[/link]