Rewrite global economy rules to create jobs – poll

The majority of workers in South Africa, or 75% of those surveyed, want a pay increase from their employers according to the country findings of the annual International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Global Poll for 2017 that has been released ahead of this weeks’ G20 Labour Ministers meeting. Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) general secretary Dennis George says in a Polity report that many workers in South Africa find themselves trapped in poorly paid, insecure and dead-end jobs. ‘In the third quarter of 2008, half of all employed people earned less than R2 500 a month and over a third earned under R1 000 a month, according to Statistics South Africa. The informal sector, agriculture and domestic work contributed a third of all employment, but two thirds of working people in those sectors are earning less than R1 000 a month. In addition, one in five African women is employed as a domestic worker,’ says George. The ITUC says what the world needs is a pay rise to reverse decades of wage theft and to create growth. Inaction not only denies social justice to the world’s working people, but the growing despair threatens peace, democracy and security for everyone.