The department held its first building sector public hearing in Pretoria North today to elicit inputs into the feasibility of establishing a sectoral determination for the sector.
Department of Labour Deputy Director: Employment Standards, Unathi Ramabulana, told stakeholders during the start of public hearings today that the department’s investigation to introduce a minimum wage “regime” was not an attempt to undermine the process of collective bargaining, rather to protect vulnerable workers in the building sector that are not covered by bargaining councils.
The focus of hearings are to engage both employers and workers on the categories of workers to be covered by the Sectoral Determination (SD), the factors to be taken into consideration when setting minimum wages, determining the mechanism to be utilised for setting minimum wages and annual increases; including the level at which minimum wages should be pegged and any other conditions related to the operation within the sector.
According to Ramabulana the investigation underway emanates from the Civil Engineering sector investigation conducted by the Department of Labour and the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC) in 2012. That investigation looked at the feasibility of extending the scope of application of the Civil Engineering SD to cover the Building sector.
The ECC, a body that advices the Labour Minister on matters of SD and Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), recommended that it was not appropriate to extend the scope of application and that as separate investigation needed to be conducted to establish protection for workers in the Building Sector.
The Building Sector currently has no Sectoral Determination. The sector is instead covered by the Bargaining Councils found in areas such as: Bloemfontein, East London, Kimberley, North and West Boland, Cape of Good Hope and parts of South and Eastern Cape. The purpose of Sectoral Determination legislation is to lay down sector specific conditions of employment for workers such as: the minimum wage rates, hours of work, leave, termination of employment, work at night and work on Sundays among others.
The national public hearings are set to continue tomorrow (August 13) at Klerksdorp Civic Centre (Kock Street), North West; Krugersdorp’s Banquet Hall (Commissioner Street), Gauteng and in Nelspruit at a Labour Centre Boardroom (Brown Street), Mpumalanga.
All the respective public hearings start at 10h00. The national consultative hearings end on 29 August.
Enquiries:
Cell: 082 808 2168
E-mail: mokgadi.pela@labour.gov.za
