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Johannesburg - The Young Communist League of SA (YCLSA)
rejects the youth wage subsidy as it is a bailout for businesses, it said on
Tuesday.
"This is yet another strategy to cut labour costs,
plummet real wages and cause the decline of the living wage and the living
conditions of our people," spokesperson Mangaliso Khonza said in a statement
after a meeting of its national committee.
"There is no evidence... that it will create more jobs
for young people."
He said the implementation of the subsidy would lead to retrenchments,
conflict, abuse and corruption by businesses.
The committee discussed the recent march by the Democratic
Alliance to the headquarters of the Congress of SA Trade Union over the matter.
It described the march, which turned violent, as "cheap
political point scoring".
"The DA should take responsibility for the violence
that ensued as a result of their provocation."
The YCLSA said a pilot project on the youth wage subsidy by
the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) on behalf of the National Treasury
had proved to be a failure.
"Through the Wits study (it was demonstrated that)
employers are not interested in the administrative process involved, as also
shown by their lack of interest in the existing skills levy," said Khonza.
In a statement, the National Treasury said this was not
true.
It said it had commissioned the university in 2009 to
investigate the dynamics of the youth labour market in South Africa.
The Treasury said 4 000 people in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and
Limpopo and some firms which hired young people were "sampled".
As part of the study, the research team tested the impact of
a hiring voucher.
"Preliminary results collected a year after allocating
hiring vouchers to young people showed that those with vouchers were
significantly more likely to be employed than those without one," said the
Treasury.
"The researchers are currently working on understanding
the mechanisms through which vouchers impact on employability."
The study was also investigating a range of factors
influencing the youth labour market and youth unemployment, including the
impact of employment services, the behaviour of job searchers and labour
recruiting firms, and the school-to-work transition.
"The researchers are still collecting the last wave of
data... and therefore the final results of the study are not yet
available," it said.
"It is the intention of the National Treasury and Wits
University to publish the results of the study later this year."
