Sactwu rejects Minister Gordhan’s comment while Lesotho clothing sector strikes.

South Africa

The ReDress Consultancy comments.

We are in total agreement with Sactwu’s statement that there is an urgent need for government to focus on illegal imports, under invoicing etc. We also fully agree that this crisis that is undermining the clothing and textile sector has not been adequately addressed. However, Sactwu, government and the industry have been trying to deal with the seriousness of these crimes for many years, why is nothing changing?

We believe it is time for all the role-players to stop putting the onus onto one another and come together in a unified manner to find a solution. Here, it is the industry itself that is to blame. Industry cannot lay the blame on the union. However, we do believe that the union could be more active in ensuring that the label regulations are applied. Raid shops in malls; be more visible within the public space. This is a crisis –we need active, tangible viable actions and results.

Questions need to be answered.

1. What happens to people who are caught? Are they just fined and then continue until they are caught again and then pay another fine?

2. Should they not be named and shamed?

3. Maybe we need to target the end of the value-chain. Where are these goods going, where are they being sold and deal with the end users?

4. Why can we not get a grip on this issue, what is preventing us from curbing such trade that is undermining the clothing and textile sector?

Lesotho:

Cosatu has rightly criticized the reaction and heavy handed response in the wake of the clothing strikes that are taking place in Lesotho. However, they only talk about the Chinese employers. We are all very aware that there are many South African clothing operations in Lesotho. Are these companies paying fair wages, are there no strikes at these operations? The fundamental question is why have so many clothing operations moved out of South Africa to Lesotho? How can we entice them to return and employ South Africans? Can the union provide us with statics in regard to how many SA clothing companies there are in Lesotho, who they are, how many people do they employ and what wages do they pay?

Gordhan: Labour policies need to change

South Africa may only create four million jobs by 2025 on its current growth trajectory unless it changes some labour policies, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Monday.  “This is not enough to make a significant dent in unemployment,” the minister told an internal auditors conference in Johannesburg.

According to Statistics SA, South Africa’s official unemployment rate currently stands at 25.7 percent.
Under the expanded definition of unemployment - which refers to people of working age without work and available to start work that week, but who had not looked for work in the four weeks before the Stats SA interview - 7,678,000 South Africans were unemployed.

The New Growth Path envisages the creation of five million jobs by 2010. Gordhan suggested that South Africa might have to relax its labour laws in certain cases to grow jobs. “We may have to change the way we see the labour dispensation in South Africa,” he said. For example, a balance needed to be found to retain the jobs of the 10,000 people working at clothing factories in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, while still allowing them to earn a reasonable wage and keeping the factories open.

Factories in the area had threatened to close down and relocate to Lesotho or Botswana if they were forced to pay minimum wages. Gordhan said laws might also have to be relaxed to allow young people to enter the workplace and gain skills and experience at lower wages, but not at the expense of people who already had jobs.

Unless such changes were made, “we will not be able to make the breakthrough we need to create jobs in South Africa,” Gordhan said. However, this would be done in the awareness of the bitter struggle fought against apartheid for human rights, decent work and decent wages, he said. “... we are not going to lose what we have gained through hard struggles.”

Reference: Sapa, 15 August 2011
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SACTWU Responds
SACTWU OFFERS SOME ADVICE TO MINISTER GORDHAN

SACTWU rejects Minister Pravin Gordhan's pronouncements yesterday that we may have to change the South African labour dispensation. He reportedly used the current situation in Newcastle as an example, saying a balance needs to be found to retain jobs at clothing factories in Newcastle, while still allowing workers to earn a reasonable wage and keeping the factories open.

The Minister seems not to have taken into account the extensive wage and employment flexibility that already exists in the clothing sector. For instance, SACTWU has agreed to a flexible wage structure for the sector, where the minimum wage for some workers is significantly lower than that in other parts of the country. In fact, there are at least 13 different legally prescribed starting rates for machinists, based on geographic differences.

The lowest legally prescribed wage is in areas like Newcastle. There is no "one size fits all".  Further, although wage rates in the clothing industry are bitterly low, SACTWU has allowed a concession that employers can pay 70% of these rates as part of a phase-in programme towards full compliance.

The Minister also fails to take into account the already very low wages in the clothing sector - the legal minimum wage for a new machinist, who in all probability is single and has at least five dependents, is as low as R416.50 per week. The Minister seems to argue that this wage is too high.  In reality, some Newcastle bosses pay their workers much lower - as low as between R150 and R280 per week. They call this a living wage. Any arguments to lower wages that are already as low as these are just a justification for the exploitation of workers.

We would urge the Minister to focus rather on one of the main problems causing job losses in the clothing sector: customs fraud. The SA Revenue Services (SARS), which falls under the Minister's department, can do much, much more to combat under-invoicing, transhipment, smuggling and other types of fraud. For a few years now, SARS has tried to deal with this problem but we are yet to see the fruits of its labour. We urge Minister Gordhan to make decisive interventions to deal with this matter. If he does this, it would be one of the most useful interventions to stabilise and grow employment in the clothing sector.

Issued by Andre Kriel, SACTWU General Secretary. 16August 2011

LESOTHO: Cosatu reacts to clothing strikes

COSATU Free State Statement

On the arrest and harassment of textile workers in Lesotho

15 August 2011

COSATU Free State is shocked and disappointed in the manner the textile workers organised by one of the four federations in Lesotho are treated by employers in the textile industry in Lesotho. These workers who are mainly women and heads of their families are subjected to bad working conditions by their employers. We are informed that unions that are organising this sector, namely LECAWU, NUTEX, UNITE, LENTSOE LA SECHABA and FAWU in Lesotho have been engaging employers who are mainly Chinese with no success until workers decided to go on a strike and withdrew their labour.

These workers are subjected to a monthly take home package of between R300- R500 a month after transport and accommodation costs and are also not supplied with any protective clothing at the workplace by the employers. This means that workers are forced to live on between R10-R16 a day which is basically nothing but a shame and annoying. What else could these poor workers do under the circumstances?

As if exploitation of these workers by their employers was not enough, the state was also called to the scene of the strike by employers and resorted to harassing, assaulting and shooting workers who were peacefully demonstrating against their employers. 5 leaders of these unions were also arrested by the police and one person was reported to be in a critical condition in hospital. The key question that must be answered to the citizens and workers in Lesotho is where these workers and citizens should go to when they face difficulties? Is it not the responsibility of the government and the state to defend and protect its citizens against exploitation and unscrupulous employers?

We are therefore calling for the immediate release of our fellow workers in Lesotho because we believe that they have done nothing wrong but were fighting for their rights. Those workers are:

1. Samuel Mokhele -Factory Workers Union (FAWU),

2. Thapelo Bohloko - FAWU,

3. Tseole Ramaliehe -Lesotho clothing and allied workers (LECAWU),

4. Monare Potlokoane - National Union of Textile (NUTEX) and Rathakane

'Mei - NUTEX.

We also call on the government of Lesotho to desist from joining unscrupulous employers whose aim is to exploit workers and defend its citizens from these types of employers. To this end in line with our Central Committee decisions on international trade unionism, we have convened our relevant structure in the province to discuss solidarity action in support to these fellow workers and comrades.

Statement made by Sam Mashinini,

Provincial Secretary

Free State

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