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File image: A woman holding South African rands.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says there has been a blatant disregard for the national minimum wage by some employers and the federation is cautioning that it is illegal for employers to pay their employees less than R27.58 per hour.
A study by the National Minimum Wage Commission has found evidence of partial or lack of compliance by some employers.
Cosatu’s parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks says the Department of Employment and Labour should ramp up inspections.
Parks says, “The Minimum Wage Act itself does provide for exemptions for employers who generally cannot afford it.”
“So if a company, an employer, they can’t afford it, they needed to basically do three things: one is they should consult or they must consult their employees, their unions, they can then apply for an exemption to the Department of Employment and Labour, and they just simply have to provide evidence of their financial difficulty. So it can be the bank statement, the financial statement and so forth. And if they can prove that yes indeed they can’t afford it, they will be given an exemption for one financial year for up to 10% upper minimum wage, and about half of the companies who have applied for the exemption have received it.” – Reporting by Katlego Legodi and Tshepo Mongoai.
VIDEO | Employers non-compliant to national minimum wage:
