The Director General: Employment and Labour has written to NEDLAC today (4 September 2020) to confirm the following regarding the extension of TERS:
- The Covid 19 TERS Directive published on 11 August 2020, shall be extended to 15 September 2020.
- The receipt of COVID TERS 19 benefit applications for March 2020 to end July 2020 shall close on 15 September 2020 and no further applications shall be accepted beyond that date.
- The receipt of COVID TERS 19 benefit applications for August 2020 to 15 September 2020 shall close on 30 October 2020, and no further applications shall be accepted beyond that date.
This means that the TERS benefit shall remain available for the categories of employees specified in the 11 August Directive, namely those whose employers are:
- not yet permitted to commence operations, either partially or in full, as a result of the Regulations published in terms of the Disaster Management Act, 2002, such as restaurants and gyms;
- unable to implement special measures in respect of vulnerable employees, or to make alternative arrangements for them to work from home; and
- unable to make use of the employees’ services either fully or partially because of operational requirements, in particular, the need to limit the number of employees at the workplace through rostering, staggering of working hours, short time, and the introduction of shift systems.
