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Cape Town - If the national minimum wage is going to be successful in lifting the income of the lowest paid workers, it is critical that all employers are compliant, said Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was responding to questions in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Wednesday.
"The social partners have therefore, in developing the architecture of the national minimum wage, agreed on a number of measures to promote universal compliance."
Ramaphosa pointed out the measures, indicating that the minimum wage was set at a level which all social partners agreed was affordable and sustainable.
Mechanisms were created to assist those sectors and companies that may encounter difficulties in meeting the minimum level, he said. These include a temporary exemption for companies and possible support for vulnerable economic sectors.
Ramaphosa said stakeholders agreed to establish a commission that would regularly review the impact of the minimum wage on employment, incomes and poverty, so that any adverse effects can be identified and addressed.
He said they also agreed that the implementation of the national minimum wage would be accompanied by an intensive advocacy campaign centered around making citizens aware of their rights and responsibilities.
"In the preparation for the discussions at NEDLAC [National Economic Development and Labour Council], the Department of Labour commissioned research that looked, among other things, at the human resource and organisational capacity to monitor and enforce compliance with a national minimum wage."
Ramaphosa said it found the that the quality and availability of inspectors was a challenge.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported that in 2009 approximately 60% of labour inspectors in South Africa did not hold university degrees which would provide them with the technical skills and qualifications needed to enforce the minimum wages.
South Africa has about 1 056 inspectors stationed at 128 Labour Centres across the country.
Although this is sufficient by ILO standards, Ramaphosa said the distribution of these inspectors is skewed both regionally and sectorally.
"Lack of awareness of existing minimum wages results in violations not being reported," he said.
"Enforcement of a single wage mechanism instead of the current sectoral determinations would be more effective."
Ramaphosa said said the agreement reached by the social partners will now be encoded in a new proposed National Minimum Wage law.
"The further engagements that need to take place between social partners on the details of the proposed law will indicated whether the current enforcement regime needs to be changed and what the human resource and organisational needs for an effective enforcement mechanism would be.
"We are confident that the commitment shown by both business and labour to the effective implementation of a minimum wage will have a significant impact on levels of compliance," said Ramaphosa.
