The article Minimum wage body finally appointed, January 28, refers.
It is wrong to allege that President Cyril Ramaphosa only signed the bill into law because he was unhappy with the tussle over candidates that delayed the implementation. In fact, parliament was not ready in May 2018 and was still debating the legislation way beyond May..
Ramaphosa had promised in his state of the nation address that the law would be implemented on 1 May 2018, a promise which could not have been kept by any stretch of the imagination.
The fear that the minimum wage will lead to mass job losses has already started to come to pass. The government cannot say that this is an “unintended consequence” as it has been warned for over two years. Even the Treasury warned the department of labour that there will be mass job losses. Subsequent to the implementation of the legislation, Cosatu warned that there has been a “jobs bloodbath”.
Over and above this, I have just conducted an oversight visit to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in Cape Town. The number of referrals thus far in January has been almost 1,500 cases. This far surpasses the referrals in January 2018.
It should be noted that the minimum wage legislation will probably cause a 15% increase in the CCMA’s caseload, but there are other amendments to the legislation giving the CCMA greater jurisdiction on all other wage disputes. These other disputes have not been factored in as yet.
Michael Bagraim
DA MP
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