Thousands of clothing workers in the KZN will soon receive an extra day’s wages. This is because the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) has just won an arbitration compelling member employer companies of the Natal Clothing Manufacturers Association (NCMA) to do so.This arbitration award emanates from a dispute that has been declared by SACTWU, after NCMA member companies refused to pay an extra day’s wages for an extra public holiday declared by the country’s President, for the 27th of December 2011.
At the time (i.e. in December 2011) the NCMA member companies jointly employed 5222 workers. This means that the total amount payable to workers amounts to approximately half-a-million rand (R500 000), combined. Some employers may already have paid their workers.
The arbitration proceedings were held under the auspices of the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry, on 28 February 2013. The union has just received the outcome of the Award. In his award Commissioner Anandh Jugath ruled that workers must be paid the extra day’s wages within 30 days from the date of the award .
This is a welcome piece of extra income, for workers who are the lowest paid in the whole of the domestic manufacturing industry.