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My daughters employer is now deceased. She has received no salary since February and has also not been issued with notification of dismissal or retrenchment. No one will fill in the UIF forms. Please advise what and where I must go to for help on this situation.
Optional Information: Province: KZN Already Tried: Requested the deceased wife to fill in the uif form but to no avail.
Welcome, thank you for the opportunity to address your question.I need a bit more information in order to provide you with a comprehensive answer:
Best regards,
My daughter is not continuing her work as she is now paralysed. Business is a cc, Wife not continuing with business but has now appointed herself as executor of his estate.
A tricky issue but if the deceased and/or his wife were the sole members of the CC, then the deceased's interest in the CC or even the wife's interests, if they were married in community of property, will fall into the deceased estate. If there are other persons with an interest in the CC then those members would need to be contacted regarding leave pay, back pay, severance and notice pay, the completion of UIF forms and any other claims your daughter may have. If all or the majority interest in the CC was in the name of the deceased then the CC would be under the control of the executor of the deceased estate. If the wife has been appointed as the executor then she is required to finalise any outstanding aspect of the CC's business.
The ways of tackling this matter is to first request from the wife her letters of executorship and should she not have been duly appointed executor or continues to be unco-operative, then you would need to make representations to the Master of the High Court in the area under which the estate falls. At the same time you can visit the Department of Labour (DoL) for the area and lodge a complaint of non-payment of wages, leave pay and other benefits against the CC. They will assign a labour inspector to call on the CC or executor and could issue a compliance order.
You can also lodge a complaint with the UIF /SARS regarding the non-payment of UIF and the fulfillment of legally required UIF administrative processes.
The principle with a CC is that the business does not end when a member dies and therefore the employment relationship does not end as it would have, had your daughter been employed directly by the deceased in his personal capacity.
If the DoL, the UIF and the Master are reluctant or disinterested, then you can bring an action against the CC in the Magistrate's Court; it may be worthwhile to jointly do so with other employees. The executor or CC members will need to defend the action.
I trust that the legal information provided is helpful in assessing your position going forward. I am always happy to clarify any aspect of the answer provided should you so require. Feedback and a rating of my answer will be greatly appreciated asexperts are only paid on answers positively rated by our clients.
Experience: B.Com LLB Registered Corporate lawywer