Section 47: Payment of recycling fee

47. Payment of recycling fee (1) (a) Subject to subsections (2) and (2A), where— (i) an employer terminates the agreement of a worker as defined in section 40; or (ii) the determinate agreement of a worker as defined in section 40 comes to an end, the employer shall, not later than 30 days from the date of termination of employment or expiry of the determinate agreement, pay to the National Pensions Fund for credit to the National Savings Fund a recycling fee according to the rates specified in the Ninth Schedule in respect of that worker. (b) An employer shall, at the time of payment of the recycling fee under paragraph (a), submit a return in the form specified in the Tenth Schedule. (c) The recycling fee payable under paragraph (a) shall be credited into the National Savings Fund Account of the worker under section 5B of the National Savings Fund Act. (2) No recycling fee shall be payable where— (a) an employer dies and his worker is employed or offered employment by the personal representative or heir of the deceased employer forthwith after the death; (b) a worker’s employment by a partnership ceases on the dissolution of the partnership, and he is employed or offered employment by a member of the dissolved partnership or a new partnership forthwith after the dissolution; (c) a worker’s employment by a body corporate ceases on the dissolution of that body and he is employed or offered employment by some other corporate body in accordance with an enactment or a scheme of reconstruction forthwith after the dissolution; or E9B – 37 [Issue 5] Employment Rights Act (d) a worker’s employment ceases on the disposal by his employer of the goodwill, or of the whole or a substantial part of the business, or of that part of the business in which he is employed and he is employed or offered employment by the person who acquires the goodwill or business or part of the business forthwith after the disposal, on terms and conditions which are not less favourable than those of the former agreement. (2A) No recycling fee shall be payable where the employment of a worker is terminated in accordance with section 38 (2) except where the Court finds that the dismissal is unjustified. (3) Where a worker to whom an offer is made in writing in any of the circumstances specified in subsection (2) accepts the offer, he shall bedeemed to enter the employment of the person by whom the offer is made forthwith upon the cessation of his employment with the first employer and the employment of the worker by the first and the second employer shall be deemed to be continuous. (4) Where a worker is deemed to be in continuous employment in accordance with subsection (3) and that continuous employment is terminated in circumstances in which the recycling fee under subsection (1) or severance allowance under section 46 is payable, the employer in whose service the worker was employed immediately before the termination shall be deemed to be the employer during the whole of the period and shall be liable to pay the recycling fee or severance allowance, as the case may be. [S. 47 amended by s. 12 (k) of Act 14 of 2009 w.e.f. 1 July 2009; s. 26 of Act 6 of 2013 w.e.f. 11 June 2013.]