The Minister of Employment and Labour has issued a direction to pay another round of COVID-19 TERS benefits.

On Friday, 16 July 2021 the Department of Labour and Employment released a media statement announcing the next phase (i.e. third phase) of COVID-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits for industries that are not able to fully operate under level 4 restrictions.

This direction follows the announcement made by Minister Nxesi about three weeks ago that the department intended on extending benefits to sectors affected by adjusted alert level 4 restrictions.

It’s important to note that in terms of this round of benefits, employees will be paid their COVID-19 TERS benefits directly into their own bank accounts and not through the bank account of their employers. Employers are however still required to claim on their behalf.

The third phase of COVID-19 TERS relief is aimed at the following categories of workers:

• Employees who have not been able to work from the 16th of March 2021 due to level 1, 2 and 3 restrictions, where these restrictions have prevented gatherings of a certain number of people – for example, those in the entertainment industry.
• Employees who were and/or are still impacted by the level 4 restrictions, which commenced on the 28th of June 2021.
• Employees who have:
o not been able to work as they are over the age of 60, or;
o who have comorbidities and have not been able to work in the period, or;
o who have had to isolate or go into quarantine and thus have not been able to work.

The period of COVID-19 TERS benefits cover for this third round ends on the 25th of July 2021.

Applications for the COVID-19 TERS period from the 16th of March 2021 to the 25th of July 2021 will open from the 19th of July 2021 and payments will commence from the 26th of July 2021.

For the official documentation click here.