FORUM 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) is shocked by the announcement made by Nedlac of a proposed national minimum wage of R3 500.
It's sad indeed that a country that's now into its third decade since becoming an independent state is still talking about R3 500 as its proposed national minimum wage.
R3 500 cannot address the issue of the inequality/wage gap difference; it surely cannot eradicate poverty as it's not even a living wage.
Worse still – this is just a proposal, which effectively gives the employers two years within which to implement this, and there's still going to be debates and feedbacks and, at least for the next 24 months, the status quo remains.
Overall, F4SD regards this as an insult to a nation that is 22 years into democracy by the government of the day.
F4SD rejects this! No petrol attendant, cashier or security guard, etc should earn anything less than R5 000.
This was supposed to be a point of departure for Nedlac – R5 000!
Anything less than this is just a middle finger to the nation, which is aspiring to achieve an equal society.
F4SD calls on workers' unions and federations to reject this insult to the workers, and negotiate for a better national minimum wage.
This is not a living wage. F4SD understands that a national minimum wage is about setting a wage floor under which no worker can earn, so this proposed R3 500 is just a slap in the face.