Minimum wage needs clarity – Godongwana
The labour movement's stance on the minimum wage needs to be clarified, ANC economic transformation cluster head Enoch Godongwana said on Thursday.
"In the manifesto of the African National Congress we made a commitment that we'll look at the modalities of the implementation of the minimum wage," Godongwana told the National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM) national bargaining conference in Midrand, Gauteng.
"When I talk to people... the voices are not even interested in attaining it. Do you know why?"
He said it was because those against the minimum wage knew the labour movement was not as coherent as it used to be. In addition unions did not care about creating new jobs, only defending existing workers.
"You as the labour movement, you are not as coherent as you are supposed to be on the minimum wage, but key issues arise out of the minimum wage which I want to leave with you to debate," Godongwana said.
"The first question is whether we are talking about a universal or sectoral [minimum wage]. That's going to be the challenge. Are we going to have a minimum wage across all sectors...or [are] we going to have a sectoral minimum wage?"
That debate was not an abstract one, as it was taking place in the National Economic Development and Labour Council.
"A related question: Is the minimum wage going to be a product of law, or it going to be a product of collective bargaining?" he asked.
"Now, any of those instruments [have] got implications for the labour movement."
If it was by law, without being proceeded by collective bargaining, the collective bargaining process would be undermined, where the very existence of unions would be at stake.
"Why [do it] with unions if they're not going to do collective bargaining?" Godongwana said.
"That's challenging questions which the labour movement needs to clarify."
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