The only way workers could bring their exploitation to an end was if they stood together, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said on Sunday."There is no ending of wage labour and exploitation of the workers without worker unity," EFF spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, said in a statement.

"Any movement that brings about the disunity of the workers is anti-revolutionary and only advances the capitalist grip on our people," he said.

As the country commemorated International Workers' Day, Ndlozi said the labour movement in South Africa had suffered divisions, losses and regression.

He accused trade union leaders of chasing self-enrichment and their own careers rather than fighting and defending workers' interests. Directionless factionalism "The agenda of socialism, a class-less society, has been abandoned for petty directionless factionalism, self-enrichment and careerism.

"In our universities, it is no longer trade unions that fight fearlessly, tirelessly and selflessly for workers' interests, but workers and student activists," Ndlozi said.

He said South African workers were paid low wages with contracts characterised by long working hours without benefits or a permanent contracts, especially black workers.

"In South Africa workers are also racially discriminated against on the basis that they are black.

"Black workers in South Africa earn less than their white counterparts for the same job, in the same company or factory, simply because they are black," Ndlozi said.

The EFF called for a total ban on labour brokers and for a minimum wage of R4 500 to be drafted into legislation across all industries, Ndlozi said.