Sowetan reports that Cosatu has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of dragging his feet on signing the long-awaited national minimum wage bill into law.
The accusation comes after the bill was adopted by parliament’s select committee on economic development in August. The labour federation said in a statement on Tuesday: “The Congress of South African Trade Unions is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to stop dithering and sign the long awaited and long delayed National Minimum Wage (NMW) into law. Workers have been very patient in waiting for the long promised NMW. Our members are rapidly losing patience because parliament passed and sent the NMW and related labour bills to the Presidency on 30 August. It is unacceptable that to date the Presidency has not announced when they will be signed and when they will come into effect.” The Act, when signed, will require workers to be paid no less than R20 per hour. A NMW commission will also be established and will annually review the wage rate. Cosatu complained that Ramaphosa’s continued delay in signing the bill would result in the depreciation of the rate as set, which was agreed to in February 2017.
- Read the full original of this report by Neo Goba on page 4 of Sowetan of 14 November 2018
Read Cosatu’s press statement at Politicsweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page