Taxi sector employees have demanded a minimum wage of R3 500 per month, no more than nine working hours per day and proper drafting of contracts of employment as part of the review of the new minimum wage and basic working conditions in the Taxi Sector.
Speaking in Durban today (March 18) at a Department of Labour (DoL) public hearing(s) on Taxi Sector minimum wage review, a South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) representative described the Taxi Sector as an ‘unappreciative’ industry in which employers were ungrateful of sacrifices of workers.
“The wealth of owners’ is in the pockets of drivers. There is no agreement on working conditions, no empathy on the treatment of drivers or their welfare, no bonuses, no increase in wages, long working hours, and above all no bookkeeping because employers are afraid of South African Revenue Service (SARS),” he said.
Part of the solution to the problems is to make Taxi Associations business operations and for government to enforce laws in the industry, said the union. Satawu lamented the continued absence of taxi owners/employers at the public hearings despite pleas.
The taxi drivers called for a tough enforcement of minimum wage regime in the industry. The unions have bemoaned that after eight years of introduction of SD there was still problem with compliance. The union representatives wondered on whether if the current SD is not being implemented, will the new one be implemented.
The Department of Labour is this week on a national roadshow in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to conduct public hearings on the review of the Sectoral Determination (SD) for the Taxi and the Hospitality Sectors.
Tomorrow the department will hold a Hospitality Sector public hearing at Tropicana Hotel at 11am in Durban. The hearings started in Mpumalanga on February and are expected to conclude in the Free State in April. Public hearings have also been held in Northern Cape, North West, Gauteng and Western Cape.
They are targeted at owners, the employers, employees, trade unions, employer organisations and the public. The Taxi Sector minimum wage/ SD came into effect in July 2005 and the hospitality sector was introduced in July 2007.
Department of Labour Employment Standards: Assistant Director Masenya Mogodi said the success of the public hearings should be judged by the quality of inputs rather than the volume of attendants. Mogodi called on taxi industry employees to report breaches of law at department’s offices/Labour Centres that are spread across the country.
Mogodi said to date the department was satisfied with the quality of inputs and called on all stakeholders to use the next few weeks before the department concludes its public hearings next month.
In terms of the current minimum wages for the Taxi Sector drivers and administrative workers should earn about R2 450 per month and just R565 a week. Workers not elsewhere specified currently earn about R1 713-70 per month and R395-52 a week.
Drivers have also called for the boarding allowance currently fixed at a minimum of R279-93 to be raised to R350. DoL senior practitioner Elliot Poswa said enforcement in the industry was still a problem. He said there was a lot of intimidation that the department had to contend with.
“However, no one is above the law,” he said, “We call on the taxi industry to make written submissions before April 4,” Poswa said.
The Taxi Sectoral Determination applies to: taxi drivers; rank marshals; administrative staff; employees engaged to cleaning taxis, premises, machinery and tools in the taxi sector; employees who check, collect fares, and manage the loading of passengers.
It does not apply to owner-drivers; employers and employees in the metered taxi sector; and employees covered by other SD or bargaining council agreement.
Inputs and submissions on the Taxi Sector SD can be directed at:
The Director
Employment Standards
Private Bag X117
Pretoria
0001
or
Attention: Nduma-Ray Oupa Mabaso
Tel: 012 309 4142
Fax 012 086 6247
Email: Nduma.mabaso@labour.gov.za
