Mixed feelings at minimum wage hikes

MINIMUM wage earners have reacted with mixed feelings to the increase of 3.8%.

The adjustment was gazetted earlier this week by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, and will come into effect next month.

The increase will see workers not covered by a special determination earn R20.76 per hour, up by 76c.

Domestic workers will earn R15.57 per hour, contract cleaning staff will now earn between R20.83 and R22.84 per hour, depending on the geographic area, farmworkers will earn R18.68 an hour and workers in the government’s expanded public works programme will get R11.42 per hour.

Stella Mpande, from Delft, works as a domestic worker and said while she was happy there was an increase, she had hoped it would be higher.

“I have been a domestic worker for three years and I have to consider things like transport, rent and groceries, and then I have no more money after that. Things get more expensive each year, but the money stays the same,” she said.

General worker Nceba Buzwayo, from Mfuleni, said the money covered his basic needs.

“I have one child and that money is enough to sustain my needs and those of my child,” he said.

The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), however, reacted with outrage at the adjustments.

In a statement, its acting general secretary, Riefdah Ajam, said it was unjustifiable and in serious conflict with the vision of freeing millions of South Africans from the poverty trap.

Ajam added that Fedusa, as part of organised labour within the National Economic Development and Labour Council, had rejected an initial call of a 5% increase at the end of January. “This latest move is simply undignified. Fedusa will call for an

urgent enquiry on the rationale by the National Minimum Wage Commission.

“The national minimum wage has not been increased in three years, and this latest move will not be accepted by Fedusa,” Ajam said.

Cosatu provincial secretary Marvin de Bruyn said he was disappointed with the increase.

“We will have a meeting next week as Cosatu and a formal pronouncement on the issue will be made,” he said.

Deputy director-general for labour policy at the Department of Labour Thembinkosi Mkhaliphi said in deciding what the increase would be, they had “considered the effects of the increase on employment”.