SAFTU condemns construction bosses for saying R20 an hour is “too high”
The South African Federation of Trade Unions is shocked, though not surprised, at the article in Business Report on 9 May 2018, which quotes a construction industry employer, Gerald Ndlovu, saying that the proposed national minimum wage (NMW) is “too high for the construction industry” and that employers “should be exempt from paying it”.
This remark confirms everything that SAFTU has said about the contemptuous attitude of many South African employers towards the workers they exploit. If they think that even the pitifully low proposed R20 an hour is “too high”, it means they want to continue paying wages that condemn their workers to even more abject poverty than those who will get the R20.
Ndlovu is quoted as warning of “a looming crisis in the multibillion-rand sector if the proposed R20 an hour national minimum wage (NMW) is implemented”.
His comments help to explain why South Africa was ranked bottom of 137 countries in the Co-Operation in Labour-Employer Relations Index of the 2017/18 World Economic Forum Global Competitive Report. Labour unrest and prolonged protests in the economy were cited as reasons for this poor showing.
Even Ndlovu himself warns that “the contentious NMW might cause further unrest among the country’s workforce, with labour relations already at an all-time low”. Faced with an employer like him workers will not just be restless but up in arms when they hear that he thinks even R20 an hour is “too high”.