MEIBC

The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) is a statutory body created under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) to provide for the co-regulation of stable and productive employment relations in the metal and engineering industries. More information can be found on the MEIBC website.

The Metal Industries Benefit Fund Administrators (MIBFA) collects levies on behalf of the MEIBC. If you report to MIBFA, SimplePay can generate the export file for you – see the MIBFA help page.

This help page uses the MEIBC as an example, but you can follow the same steps for other bargaining councils, such as the Motor Industry Bargaining Council (MIBCO), using the figures from your own agreement.

Examples of agreements that could be made with the MEIBC are the following:

• Provident Fund Collection (7.1% employer and 7.1% employee)
• Dispute Resolution (R 7.45 MEIBC Admin Levy and R 2.68 Dispute Levy – employer and employee pay the same)
• Collective Bargaining Levy (1% employer and 1% employee)
• Sick Pay Fund Agreement (0.09% employer and 0.09% employee)

Example figures only

The above are only examples. You should use the information contained in your specific agreement with the MEIBC.

The rest of this help page will explain how to use a template to set the above examples up in SimplePay. More information about templates can be found on the Templates help page.

Once you have created a template (as described on the Templates help page), you can continue with the setup.

Provident Fund

As there is a system item for provident funds, you can click Add under Normal Items and then click Provident Fund under Deduction. Then complete the information as follows:

1. Select "% of Retirement Funding Income" next to Contribution Calculation.
2. Since, in this example, both the employer and employee will be contributing 7.1% to the provident fund, enter "7.1" next to % of RFI – employee and % of RFI – employer.
3. You can select the Beneficiary from the drop-down if you have already set up beneficiaries. To set up beneficiaries, go to Settings > Beneficiaries and click Add Beneficiary under the relevant fund.
4. Since no information is available that this is a Defined Benefit (DB) or hybrid fund, you can leave the Category Factor field blank.
5. Click Save.

Setting up RFI

If you haven't set up how employees' RFI should be determined, the provident fund contributions will not be calculated on their payslips. To set this up, follow these steps:

1. Click Add under Normal Items.
2. Click Retirement-funding income under Other.
3. Select the relevant RFI Determination option from the drop-down. If you select "Selected Incomes" or "Percentage per Income", you'll need to choose the income items to include. See the Retirement Funds help page for more information.
4. Click Save.

Dispute Resolution

Since there is no system item for this, and if you have not previously created a custom item for it, you would add a template item for Dispute Resolution by clicking Add under Template-Only Items.

It is recommended that the MEIBC Admin Levy and Dispute Levy be set up separately so that they will display separately on payslips. The employer and employee contributions are set up slightly differently from each other.

Employer Contribution

On the Add New Custom Item screen, click Benefit. The reason you should use this custom item is so that the employer contribution will be included in the employees' taxable income as a fringe benefit. Complete the information as follows:

1. When entering the Name, it is suggested that "MEIBC" always form the first part of the name. Thereafter, add the description of the item – in this case "Admin Levy". Furthermore, it is suggested that an indication be added that this is the employer contribution; for example, you can add "CC" to signify Company Contribution. Therefore, the full name would be "MEIBC Admin Levy CC".
2. Select "Fixed Amount" as the Input Type and then enter "7.45" as the Amount.
3. Tick the Bargaining Council Item box.
4. Click Save.

Employee Contribution

On the Add New Custom Item screen, click Deduction. The reason you should use this custom item is so that the employee contribution will be deducted from the net pay. Complete the information as follows:

1. Compose the Name in a similar way as described above, but leave out the "CC"; therefore, the full name would be "MEIBC Admin Levy".
2. The Input Type and Amount would be the same as above since the employer and employee are making the same contributions.
3. Click Save.

To complete the Dispute Resolution part of the agreement, repeat the two steps above – for the Employer Contribution and the Employee Contribution – but replace "Admin Levy" with "Dispute Levy", and enter "2.68" instead of "7.45".

Collective Bargaining Levy

The steps for adding this item to the template are very similar to those described above for Dispute Resolution: you'll still set up an employer contribution (benefit) and an employee contribution (deduction). The main differences are that it's a single levy, rather than two separate levies (the Admin Levy and Dispute Levy), and that it's a percentage instead of a fixed amount.

Therefore, in this case, select "% of Income" as the Input Type and "1" as the Percentage for each item.

Under Select Income Items, you should choose all the income items that should be included when the percentage of income is calculated. If it was not specified – as in the example – this information should be verified with the MEIBC so that the contribution is calculated correctly.

In cases where it is a percentage of "regular wage", you should tick both Basic Salary and Basic Hourly Pay so that the template can be used for both hourly paid and salaried employees.

Sick Pay Fund Agreement

The information discussed in this section can be applied to the Sick Pay Fund Agreement as well.

Once your template is ready, you can decide on the applicability of template items, as well as which employees to add the template to. More information on these two aspects is available on the Templates help page.