Landbouweekblad reports that the new National Minimum Wage Act (No. 9 of 2018) will have to be referred back to Parliament because it contains a far-reaching error.  

A section in the new act indicating that it would be an unfair labour practice for an employer to change wages, working hours or other conditions in response to the introduction of the minimum wage makes reference to an incorrect clause in the law.  Because of this error in the legislation, payment of the minimum wage rate applies retrospectively to 1 May 2017.  Business Unity SA (Busa) has confirmed that there was never any agreement to make the minimum wage rate retrospective and that the cross reference is faulty.  Busa is seeking clarity from the government.  Theo Boshoff of Agbiz commented:  “It appears that this was a genuine mistake so there’s no reason to believe that the Department of Labour won’t fix the problem.”  Parliament’s portfolio committee on labour has indicated that it will fix the problem as soon as Parliament reconvenes.

• Read the original of this report by Joylene van Wyk in full in Afrikaans in the 4-11 January 2019 issue of Landbouweekblad

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