This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
The Star reports that Wednesday will see the early parliamentary public hearings on the Rates and Monetary Bill, which includes the proposed sugary drinks tax.
The government and union leaders have raised concerns that industry might blame planned job cuts on the tax. Cosatu's Matthew Parks said that while the labour federation was worried about any job losses resulting from a tax, there was also a “huge danger” that the industry could use the tax to its advantage. But he also noted that the entire sugar industry was in decline and 15,000 jobs hadbeen lost in the last few years. Treasury Deputy Director-General Ismail Momoniat said on Tuesday that they did not want the industry to use the sugar-sweetened beverage tax as a rationale to fire staff. The Beverage Association of SA (BevSA) has claimed that up to 70,000 jobs were in danger, however Momoniat said such claims were “scare tactics”. The Treasury previously estimated that about 5,000 jobs would be at risk, but that was before the tax proposal was reduced from 20% to around 11% on a can of Coke. BevSA’s estimates were published before the tax was revised, but they still claim that 4,000 to 6,000 informal outlets would be closed as a result of the tax and that the total job losses would number around 24,000.
- Read this report by Amy Green in full at The Star
- Read too, Industry to blame sugar tax for global job cuts? at Engineering News
- Read Cosatu’s press statement in this regard at Cosatu Today
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page