This is because of the widespread flouting of the law in non-metropolitan areas, where employers pay less than the minimum wage and do not contribute to health scheme funds and provident funds.
The overstretched labour inspectorate has been unable to deal with the issue , which is so acute that compliant companies were being unfairly undercut, chief national negotiator for employer organisations Johann Baard said yesterday.
"Noncompliance in non-metro areas is a massive 80% of all the factories based there, which represent about a third of the total industry in the country. We think recriminalisation of labour legislation (particularly of noncompliance) which existed prior to 1994 will go a long way to address the problem."
Recriminalisation would mean an offending company could be found guilty by a magisterial court and be penalised.
Baard said the wage differential for a qualified machinist between compliant and noncompliant companies was as high as R250 a week. These noncompliant companies were supplying the top five retailers and undercutting those who were playing by the rules, he said.
Baard said if the trend for companies to relocate to non-metro areas continued at the present rate, about two thirds of the industry would be based outside metropolitan areas in five years' time. He stressed that the aim was not to eliminate the negotiated wage differential between metro and non-metro areas but to achieve compliance.
The agreement to lobby the government was reached at yesterday's meeting of the clothing industry's national bargaining council, where a wage deal was also signed between employers and the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu), ending a two-week strike by 55000 workers.
To strengthen the role of the trade union in non-metro areas and assist it in combating noncompliance, the wage agreement includes a closed-shop provision for Sactwu in these areas. Sactwu was also empowered to institute noncompliance proceedings against noncompliant companies and to embark on protected industrial action against them. Furthermore, outsourcing to noncompliant companies would not be allowed in the industry and the parties undertook to enter into agreements with all provincial and local governments to limit their procurement to compliant companies.
Another critical issue for the industry covered by the wage agreement was the high level of absenteeism, especially in the Western Cape, which Baard attributed largely to substance abuse. The parties agreed on a strategy to address this, setting an interim target absenteeism rate of 5% by next September. They agreed that disciplinary action should not be used and that a study would be undertaken to measure the level of absenteeism.
At the meeting, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel called on business and labour to enter into a longer-term social partnership for growth and decent work to lift the industry out of a slump which has seen the loss of more than 7000 jobs -- nearly 11% -- in bargaining council employment over the past 12 months.
