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The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) President Koos Bezuidenhout and General Secretary Dennis George will attend the NEDLAC Committee of Principals meeting on Saturday 22 October 2016, which will be chaired by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to receive the technical progress reports on the National Minimum Wage and Labour Relations Task Teams. It is important for the social partners in NEDLAC to complete the reforms to the labour market and to provide certainty on the National Minimum Wage and the Labour Relations amendments said Dennis George, FEDUSA General Secretary.

The introduction of good faith bargaining through a code of good practice to strengthen orderly collective bargaining and workplace peace, while exercising the right to strike as envisaged by the Constitution is a major victory for workers. FEDUSA believes that the success in stabilising the economy and increasing production has been aided by the federations assertions that in the course of wage negotiations a balance should be sought between pay rises and job security, to ensure that wage demands do not have a potential negative impact on employment, emphasised George. Within this context, it is important to pay attention to the warning of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the event of the NEDLAC 21st Annual Summit held on the 09th of September 2016, that “Business needs to respond by demonstrating its commitment to constrain excessive executive pay and preserve jobs even during periods of economic stress”

According to Africa Ranking, South Africa is the 5th country in the world with the biggest pay gap, where the CEOs are paid averagely 140 times more than the average salary of their employees. The gap reaches as high as 725 times, with the highest ranked CEO in the top ten remuneration pool being awarded R122 million per annum and the tenth position receiving R48 million respectively. To add insult to injury on the Deputy President’s call to constrain executive pay, on 03 October 2016, one of the leading retailers in the country awarded a whopping R50 million bonus to their CEO, driving the respective total income for the year to a staggering R100m.

The introduction of the National Minimum Wage and Labour Relations is only the beginning, to start to address the pay gap, which is fundamental to promote trust, mutual understanding, dialogue, accountability without violence, and intimidation. FEDUSA looks forward to dialogue with the leaders of business, government and organised labour in NEDLAC on Saturday morning, concluded George.

Issued by FEDUSA