The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) will host a webinar on new regulations under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) on 23 September 2021.

With a theme: “Opening the path to economic and gender justice”, the webinar will be a high-level dialogue that will bring together prominent role players in the protection and advancement of domestic workers. The discussions will highlight traditional barriers that hamper the empowerment of women in general and African black women in particular, and to find solutions to the triple discrimination of gender, race and class, that they have been subjected to as domestic workers.

The webinar will serve as a tool for the CGE to work towards achieving its strategic outcomes of creating an enabling legislative environment for gender equality, and monitoring issues that undermine the attainment of gender equality and women’s empowerment. By monitoring, conducting research and investigative programmes, and liaising with sector stakeholders, the CGE is able to play its role of proposing legislative changes and amendments to South Africa’s laws.

The panel of speakers will represent authoritative voices on the implications of COIDA regulations on the country’s domestic workers. Under the new regulations, domestic workers who sustain injuries or contract diseases in the line of duty, are entitled to compensation just like other employees. This was not the case before 2021.

Source: Government of South Africa