Cape Town - Plans to ensure domestic workers will be allowed to claim from the Compensation Fund if injured on the job were welcomed by the DA on Monday.
Democratic Alliance MP Ian Ollis was responding to an announcement by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant at the weekend that domestic workers were on the verge of being covered by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA).
"In 2011, ANC [African National Congress] representatives on the committee on private members’ legislative proposals and special petitions decided to block the DA’s proposed private members’ bill to extend compensation fund coverage to domestic workers," Ollis said in a statement.
"In its submission on the 29 September 2011, the DA urged Parliament to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s convention on domestic work and adopt the recommendations therein, to start the process of extending protection provided by COIDA to domestic workers, both of which have now been done...."
Ollis said he was looking forward to public engagement on the issue in Parliament.
In her announcement in Soweto on Saturday, Oliphant said public hearings were planned on the review of the COIDA.
The Unemployment Insurance Act, which included the extension of worker maternity benefits and the extension of the claim period, was also being reviewed.
She said benefits would apply to South African domestic workers and legal foreign nationals working locally.