Textile workers defy NBC's collective agreement

26 Oct '10

2 min read

Labour Minister Mr. Membathisi Mdladlana is aware of the problem of non-compliance of the collective agreement by many textile employers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. National Bargaining Council came up with the collective agreement for the clothing manufacturing industry.

He informed that the issue of non-compliance in textile companies in KwaZulu-Natal had started several years back. And in order to ensure the compliance with the agreement, the council had recently conducted a campaign, which led to the issuance of notices to many companies in the Free State, Newcastle and in KwaZulu-Natal.

The issue is about offering lower wages, to the labourers, than the minimum wages mentioned in the collective agreement and non-payment of contributions and taxes to social benefit funds as well as to the bargaining council. It does not involve unjust labour practices mentioned in section 186(2) of the Labour Relations Act, informed the Labour Minister.

Further he said that a solution needs to be worked out on such a complex issue of non-compliance of the agreement by the employers of that sector, which witnessed a number of job losses due to factory closures, retrenchments and liquidation.

Most of the job losses are the results of international competition and garment imports from countries like China, he added.

Fibre2fashion News Desk-India