NUMSA is disgusted by the DA's resolution to allow workers to 'opt out' of NMW
10 April 2018
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is disgusted by the DA’s resolution to allow employers to ‘opt out’ of the National Minimum Wage if they wish to do so, in order that they may be paid less. The DA proposed at its conference over the weekend that unemployed workers would be given a Job Seekers Exemption Certificate (JSEC) to allow them to enter into contracts which would allow the employer to pay less than R3500 per month. NUMSA rejects this proposal with the contempt it deserves.
What the DA is saying is that it wants to take advantage of the poverty and desperation of unemployed workers by allowing bosses to exploit them with slave wages for a period of two years. It demonstrates what we have always said, which is that the ANC and the DA are ideologically one and the same. The ANC’s current proposal on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) already allows employers to be exempted from paying the poverty wage of R20 per hour. Clearly the DA believes that the poverty wage of R20 per hour or R3500 per month is too high and would prefer that workers work for free! The DA has always been unashamedly pro-business and it supports the rampant exploitation of African workers.
They know that the poverty wage of R20 per hour will be reserved only for African labour. The employers can continue to earn massive salary packages at an average of R69 000 per day, whilst workers must exist on a measly R20 per hour. They have always defended White Monopoly Capital and it is not surprising that this is their position.
THE POVERTY WAGE OF R20 PER HOUR WILL BECOME THE BENCHMARK FOR LOW WAGES!