What happens if you’re booked off for an injury on duty (IOD) and then you need to go on maternity leave? Which benefit is the one you’re entitled to? Can you get both? What if your employer chooses to give you the smaller benefit? Scorpion Legal Protection looks at how these kinds of benefits work.

Injury on duty (IOD) means that if you get injured, contract a disease or die while working, you or your dependants can claim from the Compensation Fund. You must be booked off for 4 or more days to claim. For the first three months, your employer must pay you 75% of your salary. If you are booked off for longer, once the 3-month period expires, you as the injured employee must claim from the Compensation Fund yourself. The fund will pay you directly and your employer must supply the relevant documents to them.

But let’s say, for example, that you give birth during the time that you are booked off for injury on duty. In accordance with labour law, moms are entitled to four months’ unpaid maternity leave. Your employer does not have to pay you for maternity leave unless this is specifically stated in your employment contract, or you have come to an agreement with your employer. However, it’s important to note that your employer is not allowed to dismiss you for being pregnant or for going on maternity leave. You can take the leave anytime from four weeks before your due date and you may not return to work within six weeks of your delivery date. Where your maternity leave overlaps with your IOD leave, you and your employer can negotiate to reschedule your maternity leave to start as soon as your IOD leave is finished. But if your employer will not agree to this, then by law your maternity leave and IOD leave will run at the same time.

So which benefit are you entitled to? You cannot claim for more than one benefit. So if you are receiving payment for injury on duty, you cannot also get maternity benefits. This is a complicated issue, but the 75% benefit for injury on duty must be paid to the employee if the fund has paid this money out to the employer (when an employee claims for injury on duty, the employer claims the money for the employee’s pay from the Compensation Fund). The employer cannot claim this money from the fund and then not pay it over to the employee by claiming that they are ‘switching’ over to maternity leave – this is illegal. If the fund has paid the employer, the employer must pay the injured employee regardless of whether they are now on maternity leave or not.

The employee can report the matter to the Department of Employment and Labour for further action.

Tips

• Injury on duty pay must be at least 75% of your usual pay for the first three months.
• You cannot receive more than one benefit at the same time.

If you have a query, follow us on Facebook and ask your question during our next Live Q&A (the first Thursday of every month).

* This is only basic advice and cannot be relied on solely. The information is correct at the time of being sent to publishing.