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Johannesburg - Instead of hinting at labour law relaxation,
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan should focus on one of the main causes of job
losses: customs fraud, the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) said
on Tuesday.
"The SA Revenue Service (Sars), which falls under the
minister's department, can do much, much more to combat under-invoicing,
transhipment, smuggling and other types of fraud," said Sactwu general
secretary Andre Kriel.
"We urge Minister Gordhan to make decisive interventions to
deal with this matter. If he does this, it would be one of the most useful
interventions to stabilise and grow employment in the clothing sector."
The union rejected Gordhan’s comments on Monday that South
Africa "may have to change the way we see the labour dispensation in South
Africa".
Gordhan suggested, for example, that a balance needed to be
found to retain the jobs of the 10 000 people working at clothing factories in
Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, while still allowing them to earn a reasonable wage
and keep the factories open.
Factories in the area had threatened to close down and
relocate to Lesotho or Botswana if they were forced to pay minimum wages.
However, Kriel said Gordhan "seems not to have taken into
account the extensive wage and employment flexibility that already exists in
the clothing sector".
He said Sactwu had agreed to a flexible wage structure, with
a significantly lower minimum wage for some workers than in other parts of the
country.
"In fact, there are at least 13 different legally prescribed
starting rates for machinists, based on geographic differences," he said.
"Further, although wage rates in the clothing industry are
bitterly low, Sactwu has allowed a concession that employers can pay 70% of
these rates as part of a phase-in programme towards full compliance."
He said the minister had also failed to take into account
the low wages in the clothing sector.
