Minimum wage oversight

It is vital for people to know and understand that the deliberations in the parliamentary portfolio committee on labour over the national minimum wage are under way. However, the committee is desperately trying to curtail the amount of time the public will have to provide input and has also ordered that the examination of the public input be truncated to only 20 minutes.

Parliamentary portfolio committees have a constitutional duty to do the necessary oversight before any legislation is proposed and passed. The national minimum wage is ground-breaking legislation and will affect the local workforce for decades to come.

The governing party is so hell-bent on ensuring that the legislation is pushed through that it is prepared to forgo the necessary oversight. We have already been warned that this legislation will cause job losses, with the Treasury estimating that 750,000 jobs could be lost.

One also needs to have a look at specific industries and take into account their submissions. For instance, the fishing industry has made a heartfelt plea to the committee on how badly it will be affected. Many small businesses are not hiring at present because they are concerned they may not be able to afford the minimum wage.

All of the above means the legislature will not be able to claim that it was unaware of the “unintended consequences” of the legislation when it is enacted.

Michael Bagraim DA labour spokesman