The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is currently on strike in the engineering sector. The union's main demands are for a 13% wage increase and the banning of labour brokers. Among the justifications for the union's demands is that "South Africa is the most unequal country in the world in terms of income, and the most concrete way to address this inequality is to close the wage gap."
The question is what are NUMSA members in the engineering sector currently earning?
According to the current wage agreement minimum salaries are set according to various categories of worker from rate H (for an entry level and unskilled labourer) to rate A for a qualified artisan. The minimum a worker on the lowest rung can be paid is R23.85 an hour (see Table below). This translates into R4,130.00 per month - before any overtime payment or shift allowance. If NUMSA succeeds in securing their desired wage increase such a worker would end up with R 4,667.83 per month.
Gordon Angus, Services Manager at SEIFSA Industrial Relations says these rates "are payable by any company registered with the Metal & Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC). The MEIBC's jurisdiction extends to all employers and employees engaged in the "...manufacture and repair of any article consisting mainly of metal...and includes the electrical engineering, the lift and escalator and plastic industries, but does not include the motor industry."
Table 1: Current minimum wage rates in the engineering sector
|
Level |
Rate per hour |
Approx monthly salary* |
After 13% increase |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A |
R 45.35 |
R 7,854.62 |
R 8,875.72 |
|
AA(6) |
R 42.95 |
R 7,438.94 |
R 8,406.00 |
|
AA(start) |
R 40.73 |
R 7,054.44 |
R 7,971.51 |
|
AB |
R 38.58 |
R 6,682.06 |
R 7,550.72 |
|
B |
R 36.56 |
R 6,332.19 |
R 7,155.38 |
|
C |
R 34.93 |
R 6,049.88 |
R 6,836.36 |
|
D |
R 33.94 |
R 5,878.41 |
R 6,642.60 |
|
DD |
R 31.21 |
R 5,405.57 |
R 6,108.30 |
|
DDD |
R 29.59 |
R 5,124.99 |
R 5,791.24 |
|
E |
R 28.03 |
R 4,854.80 |
R 5,485.92 |
|
F |
R 26.62 |
R 4,610.58 |
R 5,209.96 |
|
G |
R 25.17 |
R 4,359.44 |
R 4,926.17 |
|
H |
R 23.85 |
R 4,130.82 |
R 4,667.83 |
* Hourly wage rate X 40 hours a week X 4.33 weeks per month. Excludes overtime or additional night shift payments
COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told strikers in Durban on Tuesday that "Africans are living in poverty with 58% earning a salary of R325 a month." If Vavi's figures are correct this would mean that an unskilled NUMSA member in the engineering sector earns over ten times what 58% of black South Africans do.
Such an employee also receives substantially more than unskilled labourers working on the minimum wage set by the Minister of Labour in various other sectors of the economy: Three times as much as a farm or forestry worker and twice as much as a taxi driver or labourer in the hospitality industry (see Graph 1).
Data sourced from the sectoral determinations published on the Dept of Labour website
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