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Ruling on clothing wages agreement

Durban - Newcastle Chinese and Taiwanese clothing factories have won a high court application for exemption from a bargaining council wages agreement, it was reported on Thursday.

Business Day reported that a group of five Taiwanese-owned factories and the United Clothing and Textile Association asked the Pietermaritzburg High Court to set aside the minimum wages set by the bargaining council during a wage agreement in 2010.

Judge Piet Koen ruled that factories which were not members of the council could hold separate talks about pay levels with their workers.

He set aside a decision by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to bind non-members to clothing industry national bargaining council agreements.

Koen reportedly said less than half employees in the clothing industry were represented by the national bargaining council.

Newcastle Chinese Chamber of Business president Alex Lui welcomed the ruling.

"We want to return the power of negotiation to the shop floor," he was quoted as saying by Business Day.

"We don't want wages set by some organisation based in Johannesburg that treats all employers the same, whether they are large or small." The SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union said there had been "widespread misreporting" about the ruling, and said it would respond at a media briefing in Boksburg on Thursday.

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