SABC News reports that labour federation COSATU has proposed that the national minimum wage be increased in 2025 by the average inflation rate plus 3%. The 30th of September marks the closing date for the submission of written comments concerning possible adjustments to the national minimum wage for next year. The federation says an increase above inflation would help cushion the poor from high food, fuel, medical products, and water and electricity costs that are above the average inflation rate.
The current national minimum wage is R27,58 per hour. COSATU says an increase above inflation will help reduce inequality and poverty. It says low-income workers are the hardest hit by high inflation. The trade union federation is calling for the minimum wage to be increased by 8.9% from R27.58 to R30.03. “We have made a submission as COSATU to the commission for a CPI +3% increase, we think this is critical because one; we have to make sure it’s CPI, just taking in to context that CPI is much harder for low-income workers, so it goes to the commission and the commission will have to make a recommendation. They will then ask for public comments once again afterwards, where we’ll make a submission and then it goes to the Minister of Labour for consideration and decision and it comes in to effect next year,” says Matthew Parks from COSATU.
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) has called for an increase to R15 000 per month of the minimum wage. It says this is necessitated by the rising cost of living. The organisation says this would ensure workers’ earnings enable them to afford a basic standard of living, taking into account the cost of food, accommodation and transport.
“We want a review of the national minimum wage legislation because we do think that the current national minimum wage, there is no relation whatsoever with the real cost of living which has created an unprecedented crisis of the cost of survival but also of poverty and deepening levels of hunger of the working class in this country. We are demanding a national minimum wage of R15 000 per month based on the report released recently which is titled a livable wage report which does say that R15 000 would not be a living wage as such but at least a livable wage,” says Mametlwe Sebei from GIWUSA. Compliance with labour laws remains a concern with unions saying the department needs to improve its monitoring.
“There are some issues on compliance. We have done research in restaurants, farms, construction and some domestic workers. There are issues around compliance but there are compliance issues with every law we have in the country, but we have the law to try and guide what is acceptable in society. We need to do more and better with compliance, we need to have more workplace inspections by the Department of Labour and labour inspectors,” Parks elaborates.
“Many are not, they are actually finding the loopholes in the system because what people are missing is that there is not a minimum wage of R4 000 something as people like to say. Actually, a minimum wage per work per hour and companies have found creative ways in which they can structure a working day in such a way that at the end they do not have to pay over R4 000 and so on. In addition to the fact that there are many employers that are exempted from that amount,” Sebei explains. The labour organisations say there’s a need for more collaboration between unions and government to ensure compliance with the country’s labour laws.
by Glorious Sefako-Musi