Minimum wages for taxi industry
Zibonele Ntuli
29 April 2005
The government has stepped up its efforts to regulate South Africa's taxi industry with the announcement on Thursday of minimum wages and working hours for taxi drivers, administration staff, rank marshals and others.
As from July, taxi drivers and administration staff should be paid a minimum salary of R1 350 per month, rank marshals R1 080, and other workers such as collectors and cleaners R945 per month.
The new regulations stipulate that taxi drivers are allowed to work at most 48 hours per week, and must have at least 12 hours a day and 36 continuous hours a week of rest.
Taxi drivers are also entitled to receive overtime pay, public holidays off, meal intervals, annual leave and pay slips.
The requirements were announced by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana during the launch of the sectoral determination for the industry.
Taxi associations such as Santaco, Top Six, and Satawu have committed to abide by the new
regulations.
They said concerns had been raised within the taxi industry, and asked the minister to assist them with programmes to educate those working in the industry.
"The taxi industry has had a rocky and strife-ridden history, characterised by violent confrontations between competing owners and shaped by exclusion from the formal economy", Mdladlana said.
"It is still the most commonly used form of public transport [in South Africa], and so plays a critical role in the lives of the majority of commuters, particularly in poor black communities - the same masses that created the opportunity for [the taxi industry] to be established."
The minister urged taxi owners to be responsible and "disciplined".
"We set minimum wages and conditions of employment as required by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act", the minister said. "However, there were a number of areas that needed to be varied in order to make specific provision for the taxi sector, taking
into account the needs of the sector."
Mdladlana said it would be unfair of employers who already paid more than the set minimum wage to attempt to cut wages as a result of the sectoral determination.
Source: BuaNews
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