Transcript of briefing to media by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in respect of decision on a national minimum wage, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Thank you very much Ronnie and thank you very much to all of you who are here and thank you for your patience.
We have been meeting as the Committee of Principals under the auspices of NEDLAC composed of representatives from government in the form of Ministers who deal with these economic matters as well as representatives from business associations and trade unions being represented by three trade union federations – COSATU, NACTU as well as FEDUSA and community formations who represent various community organisations in our country.
We have spent the bulk of our time today discussing matters which have been the subject of debate for over two years.
The first one with which we had to deal was the issue of labour stability and we had specifically to deal with the issue of how best do we as South Africans, when we have to deal with issues of strikes, ensure that our strikes are peaceful and that they are the types of strikes which eventually lead to agreements being reached by the representatives of workers as well as businesses. This arose based on a number of strikes which we had a few years ago which tended to be rather long while also resulting in violence.
The social partners have been at work discussing how best we can regulate the labour market issue and the labour stability matter. We have (edged?) towards agreement on two critical issues – they being the issue of whether there should be balloting before strikes happen and it has been broadly agreed that yes, there should be balloting before strikes commence. And this has been quite a phenomenal success as far as we are concerned as the Committee of Principals of NEDLAC to have gotten everyone to agree that yes there should be strike balloting.
There is still the question of those unions who are trying to amend their own constitutions to enable them to have this provision in their constitution. And there are some unions who have not yet incorporated the provision for balloting into their constitutions so there is going to be a transitional period that will allow all registered trade unions to finally have this provision in their constitutions.
The other issue that we had to discuss was how best we could ensure that when strike action does happen, we do not end up with elongated strikes that go on for months and months. We have largely agreed on processes that must be embarked upon to try and conciliate strike action and one of those has to do with the provision in the Labour Relations Act already which is going to be amended to enable public interest intervention in the form of arbitration. This will largely be voluntary arbitration where an award will be made. This process will be able to get all the participants in the strike action to stand back and have an intervention that may result in the settlement of the strike. In the end, it will still depend on the decision of the employer and the unions in relation to this matter.
A real serious attempt will be made each time there is strike action to make sure that the mediation and arbitration process does address strike action to the point of resolving it before it becomes strike action actions which will go on forever.
There are one or two issues which we still have to finalise. We have all agreed that finalisation should not be a difficult process.
The other matter with which we had to deal is the matter of the National Minimum Wage. The National Minimum Wage is a matter that has occupied the Committee of Principals through its Technical Committee for the entire time that we have been busy. We have had to have a number of research documents which would assist us to get to the magical figure of what the National Minimum Wage would be.
In helping to get us to this point, the Committee of Principals decided that we should appoint an advisory panel that consists of people with a measure of expertise in these matters. We appointed Professor Valodia, Iabongwe Twaya, Mamokete Jane, Dr Devi Kallia, Dr …, Dr Marie Leybrandt. We were also fortunate to have Dr Patrick … from the International Labour Organisation. Now this panel of advisors has been at work and they have now produced a report. They have today handed over a report to the Committee of Principals.
We have received their report.
In their report they make a number of recommendations to which they are going to speak. Now this is a report from this panel of advisors. We as the Committee of Principals have agreed that we need to give an opportunity to all social partners in NEDLAC to go and engage with the report, discuss with their constituent members and having discussed it, the constituent members will then take a decision on whether the recommendations are accepted, rejected or whether a portion of these are accepted and a portion rejected. This is still an open process but the good thing is that recommendations have been put on the table by a panel of advisors which we have appointed.
For instance, on the government side, the government delegation is going to have to discuss this matter in cabinet committees. Thereafter it will go to Cabinet to be thoroughly discussed and there will be a mandate which will be given to the Committee of Principals on the government position.
I expect that parties in NEDLAC are going to do exactly the same. The Unions are going to have discuss these recommendations as well. Only then will we be in a position to give an informed view of what the Committee of Principals at NEDLAC will be able to respond to.
What this means is that we are a step closer to finalising our discussions on the National Minimum Wage if we finally reach agreement. Now clearly all the social partners will have to decide on what their take is on these recommendations from the panel of advisors.
Just to provide some clarity on this, it is still a proposal, it still needs to be discussed, it still has to be engaged with and in the typical South African way, we would want to get the South African public to discuss this matter, to give their views, to put forward their own proposals if any, so that their views and contributions can inform this matter.
It is as you will hear soon from the panel members a rather important matter which is going to have an impact on millions of South Africans with regard to the issue of their income.
Just to recap, when we started this process of the National Minimum Wage, it was aimed at reducing income poverty in South Africa. Beginning to address the issue of inequality in our society, you will hear from the panel of advisors, precisely what their research process told them about income poverty in South Africa and the number of South Africans that are still getting low wages, to the point where we as a country are not yet able to address the issue of inequality.
We all know that we have a triple challenge in our country – unemployment, inequality and poverty. And when we were given our task it was precisely to see whether the National Minimum Wage could make an impact on addressing inequality, employment and off course, the issue of unemployment has been with us for some time. It is with this in mind that we embarked on this process. We know have a proposal on the table which the social partners are going to deal with and discuss. It is by no means the final figure of the National Minimum Wage because agreement still needs to be fully crafted and arrived at by the social partners.
As you would expect, the social partners will have their views and that, in the typical NEDLAC process must be allowed. We now have a starting point moving towards agreement.
The panel has asked that I should put forward that magical number which they have arrived at and they will go through the process of elucidating it and explaining it in full.
The panel have proposed that the National Minimum Wage in South Africa which will have national coverage, except for a few exceptions with which they will deal, should start of at R3500 per month which amounts to R20 per hour and they will explain the rest.
I will now hand you over to Professor Velodia who will deal with the recommendations in detail.
