Name and shame more defaulting employers

Yesterday, the Insurance and Pensions Commission, which oversees the insurance industry, released a list of the top 50 companies that have neglected to send their employees’ pension contributions to the respective pension funds, depriving them and their families of benefits in the event of retirement, death, or other events.

Most businesses choose not to remit pension contributions to pension funds, with the majority of them struggling with an increasingly dire economic situation. Instead, they withhold pension contributions from employees’ salaries and compensation.

Rather, these deductions are being used to fund their own cash flows.

It is illegal for employers to take employee pension payments and then neglect to pay such contributions to the appropriate pension funds. All companies are required to make contributions into the pension fund within 14 days of the end of the calendar month to which the pension contribution applies, as per pension legislation such as Section 2 (A) of Statutory Instrument (SI) 61 of 2014 and SI 323 of 1991.

We implore sponsoring employers—among them, the National Railways of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), the Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, CAAZ, ZINWA, Chemplex, Allied Timbers Holdings, ZIMPLOW, ZFC, and many more—to take into account the predicament of their workers, who might not receive their benefits in the event of retirement, death, or other events.

We implore IPEC to identify and expose additional negligent sponsors.

According to IPEC, pension contributions must be made to the pension fund within 14 days of the end of each month.

“Employers that deduct pension contributions are required in terms of section 16(3) of the Pensions and Provident Funds Act [Chapter 24:32], to pay contributions to the pension fund not later than 14 days after the end of the month in which the contribution is payable,” IPEC said.

Related