Employers told R20 is minimum hourly wage
DOCTORS and funeral directors who do not comply with the National Minimum Wage Act introduced in January this year risk being publicly named and shamed.
The move was announced by the Department of Labour at Pietermaritzburg City Hall during an Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) workshop with business directors and the public on Thursday.
The workshop was held to reinforce the national minimum wage of R20 an hour or R3 500 a month in the public consciousness.
Velaphi Mthimkhulu, Kwazulunatal assistant director of Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES, a labour department unit), said they had discovered that companies in the retail sector, funeral parlour and surgeries had changed work conditions to avoid paying UIF contributions.
“Working hours were cut to avoid being liable to pay according to the act. Community organisations and doctors still have to adjust to the act. Those resisting will have their names published on the department’s website for everyone to see,” Mthimkhulu said.
He commended compliant employers and hailed the Howick community for paying its domestic workers more than what the new law stipulated. He warned that cheating the UIF would result in fines.
“It is unfair to decrease wages to the level of the minimum wage if a company can afford to pay more, because the intervention is to protect workers from unfair labour practices,” he said.
Mthimkhulu said that companies that could not afford to pay the national minimum wage could apply for exemption, provided their employees understood the financial status of the company.
South African Funeral Practitioners’ Association (Safpa) spokesperson Vuyo Mabindisa said some small businesses whose clients were pensioners could not afford to pay the national minimum wage..
“We cut the hours because death comes unexpectedly. Our clients are pensioners who cannot afford to take out expensive policies. Other well-established funeral parlours pay way above the stipulated wage with provident fund and UIF,” said Mabindisa.
He said that while the Department of Labour understood the challenges faced by small businesses, they were mandated to enforce the law.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa spokesperson, Priscilla Sekhonyana, said it did not regulate the conditions of employment of practitioners.
Sekhonyana said it was not their duty to ensure doctors paid the minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Ingrid Kóhne, the owner of Estorf Farms which produces crops and sugar cane, and who attended the workshop, said she was unable to pay her workers the national minimum wage.
Kóhne said she employed more than 60 workers on the farm whose families depended on the farm produce to survive.
She said if she was forced to pay the national minimum wage she would have to consider replacing her workers with machines – which appeared to be a cheaper option.
Kóhne also complained that the paperwork resulting from the new act was cumbersome.
Mthimkhulu said employers would be able to register their companies, and find help with their labour queries on the department’s ufiling system.