COIDA
Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 1993 (Act No. 130 of 1993)
What an employer must do about work injuries and work diseases: register with the Compensation Fund, declare what it pays its people, keep the record, report the accident in seven days, and carry the cost itself.
Sections
12
Duties
14
Questions
35
Assessment from
R 18 300
What it covers
COIDA is the statute that takes a work injury out of the courts and into a state fund. An employee injured on duty claims from the Compensation Fund rather than suing the employer, and the employer pays for that arrangement through an annual assessment based on what it pays its employees. That bargain is why the employer's duties under this Act are administrative rather than technical, and why they are so often missed: nothing about them looks like safety law. Five duties carry almost all of the exposure. Section 80 requires an employer carrying on business in the Republic to register with the Commissioner and to keep the particulars of that business current within seven days of any change. Section 81 requires a register of employees' earnings, producible to an inspector on demand and retained for at least five years. Section 82 requires a certified return of earnings by 31 March each year covering the period from 1 March to the end of February. Section 86 requires the resulting assessment to be paid within 30 days of the notice. Section 39 requires an accident to be reported within seven days of the employer learning of it, in any way, and section 68 gives 14 days for an occupational disease. Section 64 closes the obvious escape: an employer that deducts any of this from an employee's earnings, or takes money from an employee to make itself whole for what it owes under the Act, faces a penalty and an order to repay. Section 77 does the same for medical aid contributions. The duty that catches growing businesses is section 89. A contractor that gives part of its work to a sub-contractor is liable for the assessments on that sub-contractor's workers if the sub-contractor has not registered or has not paid. The workers are deemed to be the contractor's own. The contractor can recover from the sub-contractor afterwards, which is worth exactly as much as the sub-contractor's solvency. Who counts as an employee is decided by section 1 and not by the contract. A person working under a contract of service is an employee whether the deal is written or spoken, hourly or by the job, in cash or in kind. The Act's only relevant carve out is for a person who contracts for work and then engages other people to do it. An owner driver who drives the vehicle himself is not that person simply because he invoices. This assessment covers the employer's duties. It does not cover how compensation is calculated or awarded, the medical tariffs, the objection and appeal machinery, or the exemptions for the State and for employers individually liable, because a business cannot act on any of those.
Does this apply to you?
This applies to you if you employ anybody in South Africa. There is no size threshold, no turnover threshold and no exemption for a business with one employee or for a household with a domestic worker. Section 80(1) is written as a duty on an employer carrying on business in the Republic, full stop.
It applies per business, not per group. Section 80(2) requires the particulars to be furnished separately for each business carried on, so three trading entities under one holding company are three registrations, and the Commissioner may ask for a separate return of earnings for each place or class of business under section 82(2).
It applies to people you may not think of as employees. Casual workers are in, under paragraph (a) of the definition. Directors on employment contracts are in, under paragraph (b). People supplied to you by a temporary employment service are employees of that service under paragraph (c), which is a reason to know whether your labour broker is registered rather than a reason to relax. An employee you lend or second to another business stays yours for that period under paragraph (b) of the definition of employer.
If you are not resident here, or are a legal person not registered here, and you employ somebody in connection with business in the Republic or with work on or above the continental shelf, section 80(5) still reaches you: you give the Commissioner your head office address and the name of your chief officer here, and that officer is then treated as the employer.
If you use sub-contractors, section 89 makes you answer for their assessments where they have not registered or not paid, so their compliance is part of yours.
The State, certain exempted local authorities and employers who hold an approved mutual association policy are outside the assessment under section 84. If you think you are one of those, read section 84 itself rather than answering from this record.
Where this text comes from
Transcribed 2026-10-19. Check the provision against the source before relying on it in a filing.
What non-compliance costs
The penalties here are mostly percentages of your own earnings bill, not fixed fines, so they scale with the size of the business.
Failing to pay an assessment: a penalty of 10 per cent of the actual or estimated earnings of that year, or of the outstanding amount, under s 87(1), plus interest on the overdue assessment under s 86(2). Refusing or failing to pay any assessment, instalment, penalty or other money owed: a further 10 per cent of that year's actual or estimated earnings under s 87(3). An unpaid amount can be taken through the compliance order route in ss 93F and 93G under s 87(4)(a), and a compliance order can be made an order of court.
Not being registered when somebody gets hurt is the expensive one. Under s 87(2)(a), if an employer has not complied with s 80(1) and an employee meets with an accident, the Commissioner may impose a penalty of the full amount of the compensation payable for that accident, in addition to any other penalty. Section 87(5) makes compensation include medical costs and, for a pension, its capitalised value. The Commissioner may waive or allow instalments under s 87(2)(b) where the failure was not wilful or where paying would probably mean insolvency or liquidation, which is the clearest statement in the Act of the size of the number involved.
Not reporting an accident: a penalty of 10 per cent of the actual or estimated annual earnings of that year under s 39(6), and under s 39(8) the Commissioner may impose a penalty equal to the full amount of compensation payable plus interest from the date of the accident.
Not keeping the earnings record: an offence, plus a penalty of up to 10 per cent of actual or estimated annual assessments for the period the record was not kept, under s 81(3).
Understating earnings in the return: a fine of up to 10 per cent of the difference between what you declared and what you actually paid, under s 82(3). Filing no return: the Director-General may estimate your earnings under s 82(5), assess you on that estimate and add a penalty of 10 per cent of the amount assessed under s 83(6)(b), then recover the difference with a further penalty if your real earnings turn out higher.
Failing to register, failing to furnish particulars or failing to file a return are offences in their own right under ss 80(6) and 82(6), and failing to report an occupational disease is an offence under s 68(3). Deducting any of this from an employee draws a penalty and a repayment order under s 64, and demanding a contribution towards medical aid is an offence under s 77(1). Section 99 confirms that the penalties for ss 39, 40, 47, 64, 68, 81, 82 and 83 are the ones specified in those sections.
What the assessment covers
The assessment works through 35 questions across 14 duties, scored out of 243. Each answer generates the specific actions needed to close or prove that duty, and a “yes” only counts once its evidence is in, which is what makes the score defensible rather than self-declared.
The questions themselves are part of the assessment.
Find out where you stand on COIDA
Run the assessment, get your score, and get the exact list of what to fix, with the evidence trail an auditor will ask for.