With more than 16 years’ experience in COIDA or better known as Workman’s Compensation, including Management and adjudication of claims. Visiting members (Employers) every second year were clearly not enough for the fast growing business economy. The need for the service was clear and COIDA Consulting (Pty) Ltd was established in the heart of the beautiful Eden district.
One of the questions that frequently arises is ”if an employee is involved in an accident, travelling to and from work, will the employee be covered by COIDA?”
In order for the worker to claim, the accident should ”arise out of and in the course of an employee’s employment”. It should have occurred while the worker was on duty and should have been part of the worker’s scope of duty. This means that the accident should have occurred because the employee was on duty, at work, doing what he or she was employed to do as per his or her job description.
From the above mentioned information it is clear that an employee, who is travelling to and from work, would normally not be on duty and secondly not be doing what he or she was employed to do. When I drive to work I am not on duty yet and secondly it does not form part of my job description. If such an employee is involved in an accident, it will not be deemed to be an injury on duty.
However, Section 22(5) stipulates that “”the conveyance of an employee free of charge to or from his place of employment for the purposes of his employment by means of a vehicle driven by the employer himself or one of his employees and specially provided by the employer for the purpose of such conveyance, shall be deemed to take place in the course of such employee’s employment.””
All businesses classified to fall under Classes IV (Mining) and XIII (Metal) and reporting accident and diseases to Rand Mutual Assurance, can take out additional cover for their employees travelling to work and back. The benefits payable are the same as under COIDA, but will be for travelling by any means i.e. car, taxi, bicycle or by foot and an incident occurred whilst on the direct route from home to work, or work to home, but excluding assaults.
COIDA is not covering all incidents that occur whilst on duty and both the employer as the employee have responsibilities as stipulated by the Act. Non-compliance of COIDA can result in a fine or even jail sentence to the employer. Prevention is better than cure, so make contact and ensure that your reporting procedures are in place, in order to deal with all unforeseen events at the workplace.