SEIFSA EMPLOYERS URGED TO APPLY FOR EXEMPTION

MONOPOLY CAPITAL vs the ENTREPRENEUR

MEIBC

 SEIFSA EMPLOYERS URGED TO APPLY FOR EXEMPTION FROM      – wait for this… –
THEIR OWN AGREEMENT

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Dear Industry Employer

 

SEIFSA, on 11 June 2018, distributed a newsletter to its members urging them to apply for exemption from the wage increases effective 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2019, as contained in the very agreement that they concluded with trade union parties in 2017.

It has to be reiterated that only SEIFSA affiliated companies need to apply for exemption from this agreement as it has not been extended to employers not affiliated to SEIFSA and is consequently not binding on them. In fact:

• as yet, the Minister of Labour has not been requested to extend this agreement; and
• it seems unlikely that a valid request could be made to the Minister.

 

The absurdity of this situation is something to behold:

SEIFSA is urging its affiliated members to apply for exemption, from an agreement their members agreed to, despite the self-admitted unaffordability of that agreement.

 

The intention of the Labour Relations Act is that exemptions must be possible for non-parties to agreements. It is nonsensical for a party to any agreement to be afforded the luxury of reneging on their agreement by way of a back door exemption. This ridiculous arrangement is responsible for the unaffordable wages in the Steel Industry (40 percent higher than any other industry covered by bargaining council arrangements). This self-serving arrangement plays out in the following manner:

• SEIFSA, the agent for monopoly capital and a small minority of misinformed SMMEs, agrees to an unaffordable wage;
• with the assistance of a socialist NUMSA, the Minister of Labour is approached to enforce that agreement on those who are not signatories to that agreement;
• they then encourage those same employers to apply for exemption from their own deal; and
• throughout all of this, NUMSA and collaborating unions, turn a blind eye.

 

Ludicrous!

 

Kind Regards,

 

 

 

Privileged and challenged to be South African.

We are all in this together.