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minimum wages for hospitality sector
21 May 2007
Exploitative wages in the hospitality industry will be outlawed following the labour department's announcement on Monday that minimum wages for workers in the sector will be introduced in July.
Briefing the media in Cape Town, Department of Labour Deputy Director General Les Kettledas said the sectoral determination for the hospitality industry would apply to all the sector's entities across the country. "Unlike determinations in other sectors these regulations apply to all entities in the sector, irrespective of where such an entity is located," he said.
The only distinguishing feature in the determinations would be the size of an entity.
According to the determinations, companies employing ten or less people would have to pay their employees a minimum wage of R1400 per month while those employing ten or more people have to pay R1650 per month.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said the determinations followed an investigation into the working conditions of workers in the sector. "The investigation came out with quite disturbing things — it found that some of workers only got tips as their wages," he said.
While he could not rule out the possibility that employers could react to the determinations with anger, Mdladlana said the regulations were also a good thing for employers.
"In the past employers who paid less were losing their workers to those that paid better, and as a result this created uncertainty and lack of stability," he said.
Mdladlana admitted that with the sector having more than 40 000 entities, it could be difficult to monitor the implementation of the regulations.
Sapa, www.business.iafrica.com
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