‘Starvation’ minimum wage an assault on poor

BLACK First Land First (BLF) have slammed the draft National Minimum Wage Bill as a “systematic assault” on the working class and the poor.

This comes after the Department of Labour released the much-anticipated bill, which proposes a national minimum wage of R20 an hour.

The bill, if passed into law, would increase earnings of more than 6 million working South Africans.

BLF spokesperson Brian Tloubatla said: “The R3 500 minimum wage for workers taken together with the increased VAT (15%) shows the systematic assault on the poor and workers and a turn away from radical economic transformation”.

Tloubatla accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of recommending the “starvation minimum wage”.

“Ramaphosa’s minimum wage is R300 000 a month. For a minimum wage worker to earn Ramaphosa’s one month salary in a year, they must work for close to eight years. This shocking wage disparity shows how out of touch the president is with notions of equality and a just society,” said Tloubatla.

The agreed national minimum wage would force employers to pay employees R20 an hour, excluding sectors such as farm and domestic workers.

The minimum wage for farm workers would be R18 an hour, and domestic workers R15 an hour. The minimum wage for workers on an Expanded Public Works Programme would be R11 an hour.

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) supported the controversial bill.

The bill is expected to be implemented on May 1, if passed into law.

Satawu national spokesperson Zanele Sabela said that even though the wage had been set low, nothing stopped companies from paying employees a living wage.

Cosatu also welcomed the bill as a means to lift many workers out of low wage jobs.