About reporting an occupational disease to the compensation fund

You must inform the Compensation Fund when your employees contract a disease or die after being exposed to a health hazard in the workplace. As an employer, you have to report any occupational disease to the Compensation Fund within 14 days of the occurrence.

The fund pays compensation to permanent and casual workers, trainees and apprentices who are injured or contract a disease in the course of their work and lose income as a result.

The fund covers an employee who is:

• permanently employed
• a domestic worker in a boarding house
• an apprentice or trainee farm worker and
• a worker paid by a labour agency.
  

Note: This excludes domestic workers employed by households and anyone receiving military training.

An occupational disease is a health problem caused by exposure to a workplace health risk.

What you should do

• You must complete form W.Cl.1 within 14 days of finding out about the disease.
• Send the completed form and a certified copy of the employee’s ID to: The Compensation Commissioner, P.O. Box 955,Pretoria, 0001.
• You must submit:
• first Medical Report for an Occupational Disease to the Compensation Fund as soon you get it from the doctor
• an audiogram if the worker became deaf  because of noise in the workplace
• if the disease lasts for three months or longer,  you must compensate your employee/s for the first three months of the accident and you will be refunded by the Compensation Fund
• if your employee cannot return to work for a long time, you must get a Progress Medical Reports from the doctor and submit it to the Compensation Fund every month until your employee resumes work
• you must send the Final Medical Report of an Occupational Disease once the employee is stable.
  

Timeframe

It depends on how long you take to submit all the required documents.

How much does it cost

The service is free.

Forms to complete

• Employer's Report of an Occupational Disease,W.C1.2
• First Medical Report, Form W.C1.4
• Progress Medical Reports, Form W.C1.22
• Final or Progress Medical Report in Respect of an Accident, Form W.C1.5

Who to contact