Mamodupi Mohlala, the Pension Funds Adjudicator (PFA), this week revealed plans to introduce a conciliation process to help deal with her office's backlog of about 10 000 cases, some of which date back four years to 2004.
Industry stakeholders, including the members of retirement and provident funds, retirement fund administrators and trustees, have until May 22 to comment on the draft conciliation guidelines.
In terms of section 30d of the Pension Funds Act, the PFA is entitled, prior to investigating a complaint and if it is expedient to do so, to "require the complainant to first approach an organisation established for the purpose of resolving disputes in the pension funds industry".
According to the draft conciliation guidelines, Mohlala will decide which complaints to refer for conciliation, and you, as a complainant, will be notified if she decides to do so.
If you object to conciliation, you must provide your reasons in writing to the office of the PFA within seven days of receiving the notification. Mohlala will consider whether your objections are justified before deciding to proceed with conciliation or to investigate the matter.
Your objections to the conciliation process will remain confidential and will not be revealed to the other parties involved.
A complaint may be referred for conciliation once the adjudicator's office has received and reviewed it, but before it has carried out an investigation of the complaint.
The conciliation process will be facilitated by independent conciliators appointed by Mohlala, and proceedings will take place either in person or, in exceptional circumstances, telephonically.
In order to ensure equity, neither party will be allowed legal representation at a conciliation hearing.
If conciliation results in a settlement, the written agreement will become binding once it is signed by Mohlala, and it will have the same force and effect as any other determination by the adjudicator.
Should conciliation fail, the adjudicator will investigate and rule on your complaint as if it were a regular determination. However, during adjudication, conciliators may not be called as witnesses and you will not be allowed to use as evidence any new information gained during the conciliation process.
The draft conciliation guidelines are available on the adjudicator's website: www.pfa.org.za. Go to "News and media", then "Media articles" and "Current articles". Comments must be emailed to [email protected] by May 22.