The thorny issue of who is entitled to pension fund surpluses of about R80
billion sitting in funds around South Africa - you or your employer -
inched a little closer to being resolved this week.
A second meeting of Nedlac was held this week at which organised business
and labour met to thrash out the matter.
Draft legislation prepared by the Financial Services Board on behalf of the
Department of Finance was ditched last year when the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (Cosatu) objected vehemently to the proposals.
The
draft legislation attempted to set out regulated guidelines under which the
surplus can be split between employers and employees.
Cosatu`s view is that any surplus assets in retirement funds belong to the
workers and employers are not entitled to a share.
After discussions between Cosatu and the FSB ended in deadlock, the matter
was referred to Nedlac in the hope that organised business and the unions
could negotiate an agreement on how surpluses should be dealt with.
Jennifer Wilson, spokesperson for Nedlac says the meeting this week ``was
productive in getting to the meat of the issue`` but the matter would
obviously not be solved at one or two meetings.