Full report into National Minimum Wage jobs blood-bath should be tabled in Parliament

22 November 2016

The DA will request that the full recommendations report on the National Minimum Wage be tabled in Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Labour as soon as possible.

The report includes a number of studies including one from the National Treasury indicating that the introduction of a National Minimum Wage could result in a jobs blood-bath, with more than 700 000 job losses, causing our economy to decline by 2.1%. All of these studies need to be interrogated in Parliament. We cannot allow inappropriate wage setting mechanisms to ruin the economy or add to the 8.9 million unemployment queue.

Creating jobs must be our country’s top priority, and an important lens through which we should view all major decisions during this difficult economic time.

Indeed, while we must be concerned about protecting the rights of working South Africans, this should not come at the expense of unemployed South Africans, who remain outside of our economy, away from opportunities.

That is why the DA supports sectoral minimum wages, determined by a fully independent panel that can take all relevant factors into consideration. This will go a long way in preventing the job losses predicted by the Treasury.

There is little doubt that the ANC government is again trying to create a distraction from their failure to boost economic growth and create jobs for the 8.9 million unemployed people in South Africa.

As usual, the ANC’s response is to paper over the cracks with policy proposals that may only make the situation worse for the most vulnerable in our society.

The DA will use the public consultation phase to be voice these very serious concerns. We believe that this process should start with the full recommendations report being tabled in Parliament, so that the people’s representatives can scrutinise every detail, as soon as possible.

Issued by Ian Ollis, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, 22 November 2016