There will be no place to hide for companies and employers who pay their employees less than the set national minimum wage (NMW), the department of labour said this week, adding that transgressors would suffer a heavy penalty.
The labour department this week, speaking at an advocacy seminar at the Mark Strasse Civic Centre, Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, said employers who failed to comply with the national minimum wage would be fined, and that it was important that bosses treat employees with respect, and act according to the prescript of the law, adding that “paying the national minimum wage is the right thing to do”.
Head of the department’s advocacy and stakeholder relations unit Pravine Naidoo said: “An employer who is found to have failed to comply with the national minimum wage will be fined by a labour inspector an amount equal to twice the value of the underpayment or twice the monthly wage, whichever is greater for first offenders and an amount equal to thrice the value of the underpayment or thrice the monthly wage, whichever is the greater, for repeat offenders.”
Naidoo said in addition to the penalties, the department was required as per section 76 (4) of the NMW Act, to publish in its official website, on a quarterly basis, all the employers that were issued with compliance orders for failure to comply with the minimum wage.
He said it is an unfair labour practice for an employer to unilaterally alter hours of work or other conditions of employment. Naidoo gave a stern warning to employers that they should desist from making deductions without employees agreeing in writing or there being a debt specified in the agreement.
Departmental deputy director of employment standards Mogodi Masenya added: “Before an employer can apply for exemption, he or she must meaningfully consult every representative trade union and must provide the bargaining council, union or affected workers a copy of the application downloaded from the system.”
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