The National Minimum Wage applies to all workers and no employer can pay workers below that level, a senior South African department of labour official told union representatives and other stakeholders at a meeting at uMhlathuze municipality in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, on Thursday.
“The National Minimum Wage will be the floor level below which no worker should be paid and cannot be varied by contract, collective agreement or law,” director of employment standard, Stephen Rathai, said.
Rathai was addressing unions and other stakeholders on the upcoming National Minimum Wage which will be implemented in May 2018, as will amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) and the Labour Relations Act (LRA).
“The National Minimum Wage constitutes a term of a worker’s contract except to the extent that the contract provides for a favourable wage and the employer cannot unilaterally alter the hours of work or other conditions of employment in implementing the National Minimum Wage,” he said.
Rathai said of the R20 per hour minimum wage level, farm/forestry workers will be paid R18, and domestic workers will be paid R15 from May 2018.
Rathai said that amendments to the basic conditions of employment act deal with the monitoring and enforcement of the NMW including dispute resolutions thereof.
“The amendments include the scope of the Department’s inspectorate in terms of monitoring the implementation of the NMW including securing undertakings, enforcement of NMW in sectors with collective agreements including bargaining councils and the referral of noncompliance to the [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] CCMA.”
Meanwhile, Ian Macun, the chief director of employment standards said the amendments to the Labour Relations Act dealing with the state of the labour relations environment with respect to violent and protracted strikes.
Macun said that one of the amendments to the LRA is that a picket will be prohibited unless picketing rules are in place.
– African News Agency (ANA)
