5 October 2011
Breaking News from The ReDress Consultancy
New Wages for SA Clothing Industry announced.
It is understood that South Africa’s clothing union, Sactwu has agreed on a new wage structure for the clothing industry. The new wage structure is effective as of 1 September 2011.
According to resources the wage breakdown is as follows:
Metro Areas: An increase of 6.5% to company for all categories in sector.
Non-Metro Areas: The new wage equates to roughly R45.00 per week increase for a General Worker & Qualified Machine Operator. Other categories equates to a 9.2% increase – this is cost to company.
New Entry Wage Structure:
A new wage structure agreed for new employees (industry entrants) with no prior industry experience. This new structure will also cover potential employees who have experience but have been out of the industry for (3), three or more years.
Metro Area: 70% of the New Gazetted Wages for relevant category.
Non Metro Area: 80% of the New Gazetted Wages for relevant category.
Comment:
Wage increases onto an already burdened and stretched industry is of concern. More so when the bargaining council has admitted that companies who undertook in principal to meet the Phase-in regulations are failing to do so. One wonders how many companies will be in a position absorb these increases and what effect it will have on existing labour in the industry.
The notice that the union has accepted a new entry wage structure to encourage up-take of employment is welcomed. However, a similar proposal with the same objective was proposed over a year ago and the union rejected this initiative. The consequences of this rejection have reverberated throughout the industry and are well documented.
Why the change at this time in regard to entry level wages?
The new Entry Wage model needs more excavation and evaluation to be fully understood.
- How long will the new Entry Wages be in effect?
- After one year of employment will a new employee move to 100% or is there a structured wage increase over a specific period?
- What other benefits do employers have to pay that is not included in the new wage structures.
The new two level wages formal and Entry Level have been negotiated between the industry body that represents compliant clothing companies and the union. Will the non-compliant companies agree with the new wages or will they reject both levels due to them being excluded from negotiations?
1 comments:
the last comment in this article is very pertinent - regarding non-compliant agreement or rejection when they were excluded from negotiations.
How will this pan out is any-ones guess.
Perhaps more of the same over and over again.
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