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Legislation: Minimum Wage Bill shortcomings exposed

Publish date: 23 March 2018
Issue Number: 4425
Diary: Legalbrief Today

The National Minimum Wage Bill and related amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act ‘are not themselves a product of engagement in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac)’. In fact, they ‘undermine significant agreements’ reached in that forum under the leadership of then Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. This, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch, was the thrust of a submission from Institute for Economic Justice co-director Neil Coleman during yesterday’s parliamentary hearings, when he nevertheless chose not to comment on amendments to the Labour Relations Act. It was not clear why, although Coleman did say that he was not speaking on behalf of the labour movement in making his submission. This notwithstanding, as lead negotiator for labour in the Nedlac wage inequality task team established to negotiate a national minimum wage, Coleman’s remarks were telling. In his view, the two Bills on which he focused are ‘incoherent in important aspects’ and may even ‘retard progress’ in achieving the ‘comprehensive package’ envisaged when organised labour first proposed that a national minimum wage be considered. According to Coleman, this package should: ‘promote decent work and a living wage’, using the national minimum as a ‘springboard’; promote collective bargaining in all sectors of the economy, improving on the national minimum wage and reconfiguring ‘the entire wage structure’; and establish a comprehensive system of social protection that, together with the minimum wage and reduced ‘key public services costs’, ‘significantly raises the income of poor households’. In the absence of progress on other aspects of the package, the two Bills apparently fall far short of what organised labour originally had in mind.

submission from the Casual Workers Advice Office urged National Assembly Labour Committee members to reject the Bills in their entirety. ‘Mainly’ organising ‘labour broker workers in Gauteng’, representatives of the office adopted a somewhat militant position on addressing the evils of ‘cheap black labour’. Their submission nevertheless made one important point on implementation. Given the country’s ‘grossly ineffective labour inspectorate’, the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) will find itself largely responsible for enforcing the national minimum wage – which could well undermine the council’s ability to fulfil its broader mandate. ‘Over a 10-year period’, the number of cases referred to an already under-resourced CCMA has apparently increased by 52%, despite ‘76% of the country’s workers’ being non-unionised and therefore dependent on the CCMA’s discretion regarding ‘the right to alternative representation’.

The most alarming presentation came from the Shukumisa Coalition on social welfare services, representing a raft of non-profit organisations nationwide. It appears that Department of Social Development funding policies and practices will make paying the minimum wage ‘a near impossibility’ for many non-profit entities already struggling to survive – but ‘servicing society’s most vulnerable and poor members’. The situation is compounded by a mismatch between the Department of Labour and the Department of Social Development in what is understood by the term ‘employee’. According to the Shukumisa Coalition, a 2016 national minimum wage panel report identified social welfare sector staff as a category of vulnerable employees on a par with farm, forestry and domestic workers – calling for an ‘expert group’ to be established to address the challenges they face. No such group has materialised, with the result that the National Minimum Wage Bill makes no provision for the social welfare sector in clauses phasing in the minimum wage for other vulnerable workers. Against that backdrop, the new legislation is likely to further lower morale among welfare workers – impacting on the quality of their services and threatening the very survival of many of the organisations concerned. Both ruling and opposition party committee members present at the hearings commended the coalition for bringing these matters to their attention. The hearings continue today, with Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant scheduled to brief the media on Monday about ‘the way forward’. Meanwhile, National Assembly Labour Committee acting chair Sharome van Schalkwyk yesterday assured members that more time will be allowed to process the three Bills concerned – and that there are no plans to table them for a second reading debate before the April recess. 

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