In December 2013, The South African Labour Department increased the minimum wage for domestic workers. In metropolitan areas, domestic workers who work more than 27 hours per week should be paid R9.63 hourly, R433.35 weekly (for a 45-hour week) and R1 877.70 monthly.
Although the wage increase is very good news for domestic workers, 1st for Women Insurance’s executive head, Robyn Farrell says, “Abiding by this law is not the only thing you need to do in terms of looking after the best interests, health and welfare of your domestic worker.”
In the unfortunate event of their death, disability or hospitalisation, too many domestic workers are not covered to be properly cared for in such difficult circumstances.
“To this end, 1st for Women have introduced a much-needed product for domestic workers,” explains Farrell adding, “too much of the time, our domestic workers are not able to get proper treatment when they are ill. Paying minimum wages does not ensure that they will be able to afford hospitalisation and other essential services.”
Aimed at domestic workers, Domesticsure includes cover for death, disablity and hospitalisation as well as a repatriation service, a payroll service and access to a variety of medical tools and services. If your employee passes away, his or her death will be covered for up to R25 000, if it’s a natural death, and up to R50 000 if the death was due to an accident. The product includes a repatriation service that provides cover of up to R3000. So, if the death and burial of your domestic worker happens within the borders of South Africa, the transportation of their remains to the chosen funeral home or cemetery will be covered. If your domestic worker is seriously injured and needs hospitalisation, it will be covered for R200 per day for a maximum of 104 weeks.
The Hello Doctor benefit, included with Domesticsure, gives your domestic worker access to a qualified doctor for advice and guidance, whenever and wherever they might be. “Your domestic worker will also be able to view an extensive medical database with a comprehensive A to Z of medical conditions and symptoms,” says Farrell, “this is a very important service for those who may not have access to a doctor’s advice as readily as they need.”
Another benefit of Domesticsure is Pocket Payroll which enables you to create payslips for your domestic worker through retrieving payslip information via your smart device or computer; it’s fully SARS and BCEA compliant and also assists you by generating SARS documents, like IRP5 and EMP201 forms. Domesticsure is offered at just R66 per month. “It all about doing what you can to help those who do so much to help you in your daily life,” says Farrell, “it’s an obligation for those who employ others to look after their children and clean their homes to make sure that they and their families will be looked after when they need it.”
