Workers prepared to work for peanuts

City Press: 12 September 2010
By: ANNAMARIA LOMBARD
South Africa
Workers prepared to work for peanuts

Employers say the choice is between low wages and closing factories
Cindy Mkhaliphi is faced with a dilemma shared by almost 8 000 other textile factory workers in Newcastle, KwaZuluNatal: earn peanuts or earn nothing. Her job is on the line as Newcastle’s economy teeters on a knife edge. Bosses of 65 textile companies – known as “cut, make and trim” factories – prepare for a final showdown with authorities enforcing minimum wage laws which they warn will close factory doors and cause nearly one third of the city’s 24 000 manufacturing jobs to be lost.

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The ReDress Consultancy helped with this article.