Union secures funeral insurance cover for members

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Tuesday May 29, 2012 00:00

The Metropolitan Life product attracts a monthly premium of P27 per month. Under the policy, the beneficiary, spouse and their children aged 16 to 20 get a cover of P20 000 each, while children aged six to 15 are covered at P10 000 each and stillborns to five year olds are covered at P5 000 each.

NALCGPMWU president, Johnson Motshwarakgole told Mmegi yesterday that they have been negotiating the deal with Metropolitan for a while following a conference in 2007 which resolved that the union should secure insurance cover for members. 'We delayed to join because of three conditions that we were still negotiating with Metropolitan. We felt that because we were joining as a huge group, we should be able to bargain for some conditions,' he said.

Among the conditions, the union pressed for members to benefit from the policy immediately, and for the funeral cover to include 21-year-olds.The union further wanted the cover amount for the beneficiary's parents to be increased, as they felt that it was too little.  'We have agreed on these conditions,' he asserted.  He said they are yet to agree on the cover amount for the 21-year-olds. 'Members pay something like P300, P200 or P180 for policies with other insurance companies, but a person working for Ipelegeng can even afford this one,' he said, 'Even when one retires, he/she still will be able to continue with the policy because it is only P27 a month'.

Meanwhile, some members of the union have complained that the union has 'stolen' the three percent salary increment they recently got from the employer. The three percent increment translates to P30 for some of the workers. They cried about the P27 deduction, saying that they do not want the policy. They further complained about the union's membership fee, which has been increased from P10 to P20.'That is even more than the three percent some of us got. We feel cheated. We thought the union wanted us to get a salary increment but they have now taken the money for themselves,' complained one member who preferred anonymity. 'Some of us are in arrears and we needed the P30,' he said.

He complained that the union did not even consult them about the policy or the membership fee increase.'We thought that as we keep on holding meetings here with union representatives from across the country, they were also passing down the information to their areas. But we now realise that information has not been flowing as we would have wished,' Motshwarakgole responded to the complaints.