Johannesburg - Talks on a national minimum wage for South Africa have effectively deadlocked, dashing hopes of its implementation this year.
Two of the four constituencies at the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) - labour and community - plan on declaring a formal dispute.
Read: National minimum wage will hurt workers
Labour spokesman Neil Coleman told Independent Media the dispute would allow for the constituencies to embark on a programme of protected mass action.
“The view of the Nedlac labour and community constituencies is that we now need to declare a formal dispute, if we are to break the current deadlock,” said Coleman.
Labour, community, business and the government have been in talks for 18 months about introducing a minimum wage. Only certain sectors such as domestic workers, farm workers, wholesale and retail, have a minimum wage known as a sectoral determination.
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The national minimum wage was first mooted by the ANC in its 2014 general election manifesto.
The party gave itself a five-year deadline to decide on its modalities.
However, earlier this year senior party members including ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the base pay would be implemented this year.
The government has been at pains to stress that negotiations have been proceeding smoothly, despite businesses’ objections.
In March, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is in charge of the talks, said a “significant” announcement would be made on the wage in coming months.
“All social partners have committed themselves to conclude these deliberations without delay. There have been no delays caused by government,” he said.
But Coleman has painted a very different picture saying the labour and community constituencies had no choice but to embark on this course, describing the negotiations as frustrating.
“Business has deployed the twin strategy of refusing to engage on critical matters, while using every trick in the book to delay and prolong discussions,” Coleman said.
He said the labour and community groups had agreed that to make progress, they needed to mobilise their constituencies in workplaces and communities countrywide.
“It is unacceptable that it’s two years since the ruling party committed to implementing a national minimum wage, and there is little significant progress in the negotiations. Compare this to Germany, where the details of their national minimum wage were designed and implemented in little over a year.”
Many in the business lobby argue that introducing a floor wage will jeopardise existing jobs and price some work seekers out of the job market, but most international research on this topic shows no correlation between a national minimum wage and job losses.
Studies suggest the inequality gap between the rich and the poor narrows as a result of a minimum wage.
While the government has not yet committed to an amount, it is likely to be in line with research from the Development Policy Research Unit at UCT.
It has suggested two minimum wage scenarios to the state. The low-end scenario sets it at R2 477 per month and the high-end at R3 400.
Both figures are lower than the R4 500 minimum favoured by labour unions.
Business has said if a minimum wage is introduced it must be on a par with the lowest existing sectoral determination of R1 800 a month.
LABOUR BUREAU
THE STAR