Cosatu mulls basic wage
COSATU will discuss implementing a national minimum wage in all sectors, at its congress starting today.
“An initial national minimum wage, set at say R2 800, while still low would have an immediate positive impact on millions of workers,” the union federation said in its organisational report.
“This national minimum would be a legislated basic wage floor, below which no worker could fall,” it said.
Cosatu said there were two possible ways to calculate a possible minimum wage.
It could be based on a minimum living level, although SA does not have an agreed standard. The Labour Research Service has suggested a level of R4 105 for a family of five, while Unisa has put forward a supplementary living level of R4 000, and the University of Pretoria’s household effective level is R5 500.
These figures are based on the cost of a basket of goods that each institution defines as necessary for basic living.
The second way of calculating a minimum wage is to look at the proportion of the average minimum wage to the national average wage.
The International Labour Organisation argues that a national minimum wage should not be less than 40 to 50 percent of the average wage, or about two thirds of the median wage. The median wage is the point at which the same number of workers earn below and above the median.
“Our current ratio is around 22 percent of the national average wage. If we took a ratio of 40 percent, we would be looking at a minimum wage of between R4 800 and R6 000, or below that if we use the median wage calculation,” Cosatu said.
“If we were to use these international yardsticks, we would arrive at a national minimum wage of around R5 000.”
Cosatu said this was double the current average minimum wages of the sectoral determinations, which control the terms and conditions of employment for workers in particular sectors.
“It might be difficult to achieve this in one bite, even with the strongest of campaigns.”
Cosatu suggested looking at a first step of around R2 800. This figure lies between the average minimum in sectoral determinations (R2 118) and the average minimum wage of existing collective bargaining agreements (R3 405) in 2011.
“This figure is purely raised for discussion purposes, and is not intended as a firm proposal,” Cosatu said.
The introduction of a national minimum wage in Brazil did not lead to massive job losses, Cosatu said.
However, Adcorp labour economist Loane Sharp said the introduction of a national minimum wage would definitely lead to job losses.
Trade-off
“It’s definitely feasible, but there’s a trade-off involved; the higher the minimum wage, the lower the employment,” Sharp said. If a monthly national minimum wage of R5 000 was set, those earning below that would probably lose their jobs.
According to the Statistics SA Household Survey, 8.9 percent of the national workforce – or 1.21 million people – earn below R5 000 a month.
“What it means is that people who are not worth R5 000 to their employers will lose their jobs.
“Cosatu hopes that everyone who earns less will suddenly be pushed up to the minimum wage, but that is naive.
“Most people will simply lose their jobs,” Sharp said. “It would be disastrous.”
He said the average monthly wage in SA was R13 284 in the formal sector, outside farming. If the informal and farming sectors were included, the average monthly wage was R2 852.
Cosatu’s 11th national congress takes place in Midrand from today to Thursday.
IN DECEMBER2010, Louis Lamsley, CEO of Aurora Empowerment Systems, owners of Grootvlei Mine on the East Rand, stated that “extremely violent” illegal miners had been stripping unused shafts of metal and other valuables since the mine went on to care and maintenance in March.
He conjured up the familiar image of violent impoverished people who steal without compunction, damaging the economy through their recklessness. Indeed, this kind of troubling violence had occurred earlier that year, when protesting miners had held management and clerical staff hostage.
But that is not the whole story. To understand the violence at Grootvlei – and elsewhere in mining – we need a fuller account.
Grootvlei (‘‘Large Wetland’’) next to the Blesbokspruit, runs into Marievale Nature Reserve. The area is a Ramsar site, in other words a wetland of international recognition. We now realise that mining can pose a permanent threat to our water. Underground water flowing into mines becomes contaminated by the chemical reactions that follow its contact with exposed rock, and has to be pumped out and treated before it can be released into the environment.
This is a cost imposed on present and future generations by those who made profits by extracting the mineral wealth. Many were of course people living overseas, whose water would never be contaminated by what happens here.
Grootvlei mine had been owned by Pamodzi Gold until the firm went bankrupt. Aurora took over the management of the mine while trying to raise funds, and worked in conjunction with the liquidators.
Aurora is noted for its visible directors: chairman Khulubuse Zuma, the nephew of President Jacob Zuma; and managing director Zondwa Mandela, grandson of the former president. Another director is legal adviser to the president, Michael Hulley.
By February 2010 mineworkers were no longer being paid, and were left to fend for themselves.
By March 2010 untreated water was flowing into the Blesbokspruit, posing a threat to wildlife and to people who use the water downstream.
Carte Blanche did sterling work in exposing the hunger and despair of mineworkers, some of whom continued doing unpaid work in trying to keep pumping and treatment going. The protests in April 2010 were ended by police who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.
It seems likely that some miners started to mine the ore themselves, while we know that others came in to work underground.
Nepotism
In August 2010 a group led by the security chief of the mine, better known as ‘‘Bad Brad’’ Wood, allegedly shot dead four illegal miners.
In January last year pumps were removed from the flooded mine. Enver Motala, the chief liquidator, who worked with the incoming owners, assured the public that this was ‘‘normal routine’’.
By September last year, the Master of the High Court had removed him from the register of liquidators because he lied about his convictions for fraud under his previous name, Enver Dawood, and set up an inquiry into the dealings between him and the owners.
The new liquidators presented evidence that the directors and managers of Aurora had sold R122 million worth of gold from the mines and paid themselves and their families with the proceeds, instead of paying running costs and staff.
While it had not been possible to pay workers, it had been possible, for example, to pay R3.4m to a firm that makes wardrobes.
The previous liquidator had agreed to these payments.
Young though they are, the directors were struck with remarkable loss of memory when asked to account for money, for documentation and for records of payment.
In December last year, Khulubuse Zuma bought a Maserati for at least R1m. Seven hundred workers were reported as being destitute at Grootvlei.
In January this year Zuma was caught speeding at 181km/h. His licence was not suspended. In March, it was reported that 20 illegal miners at Grootvlei had died in a rockfall.
A manager held hostage by angry workers experiences what we might term ‘‘personal violence’’, when someone intends to harm you.
However, there is distortion when we recognise only that evil. There is a looming violence at work here, one termed ‘‘structural violence’’. That is when the institutions of society operate to starve people and to poison their environment, or drive them to extreme and lifethreatening situations.
When institutions such as the law, the courts, free and enquiring media do their work, democracy works best. We still, though, have to tackle the deep violence of the society. In this case, the burden of that violence fell hardest on black poor people, with the addition now of white workers reduced to poverty.
The introduction into the elite of people like Khulubuse has provided the lubricant that enables the wheels of oppression to operate more smoothly.
At Grootvlei, violence against people and violence against the environment are intertwined. Structural violence directed against the poor and the vulnerable is linked to the reckless abuse of the environment; in turn this imposes on them an added burden.
● Hemson is the director of the International Centre of Non-violence, based at Durban University of Technology.