STEEL INDUSTRY: Seifsa’s wage proposal: ENTIRELY NONSENSICAL

STEEL INDUSTRY

Seifsa’s

wage proposal

ENTIRELY NONSENSICAL

by Gerhard Papenfus

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Dear Steel Industry employer

According to a recent article in Engineering News, Seifsa states that their latest wage proposal (for purposes of the current Steel Industry negotiations), is aimed at “industry survival, growth and recovery”.

Their offer, among others, makes provision for a minimum wage of R12 000.00 pm/ctc, for an unskilled and uneducated worker with no experience, with a 15 year phase-in period, to an unknown future rate, for employers who are currently paying less than the R12 000.00 – being the 90 percent of employers in the steel industry who are not affiliated to Seifsa.

Calculated at an increase of 5 percent over the next 15 years, it will require of an employer who is currently paying the national minimum wage to an “unskilled, uneducated and inexperienced” employee, to effect an average annual increase of 36% over the first 5 years to reach the proposed 60% of the rate and an average annual increase of 13% for the following 10 years to reach 100% of the rate; and that is regardless of the performance or personal development of the relevant employee.

Since this offer will lead to mass escalation of unemployment, should employers buy into this scheme, Seifsa must explain how they refer to this ridiculous suggestion as an offer “aimed at industry survival, growth and recovery”.

Fortunately, it was rejected by all representative employer bodies in the steel industry.

Seifsa must also explain how their proposal will affect their own affiliated members who cannot afford the ridiculous wage arrangement that Seifsa, over many years, has entered into on their behalf.

It remains NEASA’s contention that the only sustainable wage dispensation is one where the employer, based on his/her own unique financial ability, and the performance of every individual employee, determines the level of remuneration. Any other wage arrangement, especially in a country with a 40 percent unemployment rate, is simply nonsensical.

Gerhard Papenfus is the Chief Executive of the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA).

For more information:
NEASA Media Department
media@neasa.co.za