COIDA registration: how to check a contractor's letter of good standing before work starts

A COIDA letter of good standing is the Compensation Fund's certificate that an employer is in good standing with the Fund under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA): to be in good standing, the Fund says, an employer's "return of earnings & payments must be up to date".^[8][5]

The Fund's 2014 printing guide lists who can print a letter: an employer that is registered (section 80), has submitted all its returns of earnings (section 82), has been fully assessed (section 83) and has paid what it owes (section 86). Its online portal says today that a letter "will be issued on receipt of the full payment".^[7][6]

COIDA registration is the duty in section 80(1): an employer carrying on business in South Africa "shall within the prescribed period and in the prescribed manner register". The Fund's portal asks "Have you appointed 1 or more employees?"^[1][6]

Section 89 makes the employees of the firm you hired count as yours: if that firm "fails to register or pay any assessment, the said employees of the sub-contractor shall be deemed to be the employees of the contractor, and the contractor shall pay the assessments in respect of those employees" (section 89(1)(b)).^[2]

The 2022 Amendment Act replaced section 89 in its section 56. Proclamation Notice 306 of 2026 brought that Act into operation on the date the proclamation was published in the Gazette, 23 January 2026, except sections 3 to 6 (from 1 February 2026) and sections 19(a) and (b), 20(c), 28(c), 36(1), 50(3), 52 and 54(1) and (2) (from 1 April 2026); it sets no date for section 1(g), the new definition of "earnings", or for section 1(h) as far as it relates to subparagraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) of the definition of "employee". Section 56 is not among the exceptions, so the new section 89 has applied since 23 January 2026.^[3][2]

In the new section 89, the business giving out the work is the "contractor" and the firm doing it the "sub-contractor" (formerly "mandator" and "contractor").^[1][2]

The duty itself sits with the firm you hire: section 89(1)(a) requires it, "in respect of its employees employed in the execution of the work concerned", to "register as an employer" and "pay the necessary assessments".^[2]

You can recover from the firm an assessment or compensation you would not have owed but for subsection (1) (subsection (2)), and set off an assessment you paid to the Fund "against the debt to the sub-contractor" (subsection (3)). The Commissioner may also recover compensation from the firm instead of from you, and "if the full amount cannot be recovered from the one, the shortfall can be recovered from the other" (subsection (4)).^[2]

Section 89(5) sets the limit: you are not liable under the section for an accident at a place that is not "on or about the premises" where you undertook to execute the work, or not otherwise under your control or management.^[2]

Enter the letter's certificate number on the Compensation Fund's Validate Letter of Good Standing page, cfonline.labour.gov.za/VerifyLOGS; the page says "You can only validate the letter using the Certificate number".^[5]

The page also tells you to "Verify the Trade name against the Trade Name on the certificate" and "Don't forget to check the Valid period of the certificate".^[5]

The Fund's portal takes reports of forged letters of good standing at cf-fraud@thehotline.co.za, on 0800 234 432 or by SMS to 30916.^[6]

A letter of good standing covers only the employer named on it, and only that employer's standing with the Compensation Fund. It leaves these gaps:^[7][5]

• Sub-contractors. Each firm your contractor brings in must register for its own employees on the work (section 89(1)(a)), so the contractor's letter does not cover them.^[2]
• Workers from a temporary employment service. The Act makes the service the employer of a person it provides to a client against payment and whom it pays (definition of "employer", as amended in 2022), so the service's letter covers that worker.^[2]
• Employers insured with a licensed mutual association. Such an employer is exempt from paying assessments to the Fund (section 84(1)(b)), and the Fund's 2014 printing guide says no letter is issued to them or to other exempted employers. The Construction Regulations accept good standing with a licensed compensation insurer instead (regulation 5(1)(j)).^[1][7][4]
• Sole traders. A sole trader working alone has no employee and nothing to register, but a helper taken on, even casually, is an employee.^[1][2][6]
• Public liability and safety. COIDA covers injuries and diseases "sustained or contracted by employees" (its long title), not harm to others, and the Construction Regulations treat competence and the health and safety plan as separate duties (regulation 5(1)(h) and (l)).^[1][4][14]

1. The contractor's Compensation Fund letter of good standing, in the name of the company that will sign the contract, with its certificate number and expiry date, and the contractor's CF registration number.^[5][6]
2. An expiry date after the planned start date, and the renewed letter before the current one expires if the job runs past it.^[8][5]
3. If the contractor pays its assessment in instalments: a new month-to-month letter for every month it is on site.^[7][8]
4. A letter for each sub-contractor and each temporary employment service that will send people to site, before those people arrive.^[2][14]
5. If the contractor is insured with a licensed mutual association instead of the Fund: that insurer's proof of cover and good standing.^[1][4]
6. For construction work: good standing of the principal contractor and every contractor before any work starts (Construction Regulations, 2014, regulations 5(1)(j) and 7(1)(c)(iv)).^[4]
7. A contract clause keeping COIDA registration and payments up to date while its employees are on your premises, and naming your section 89 rights to recover and set off what you pay for them.^[14][2]
8. Public liability cover and the safety documents, asked for separately: the letter covers neither.^[14][4]