Do you pay your domestic worker less than R23.19 per hour? Labour department could come for you

The employment and labour department has urged domestic workers to report employers who are not complying with the national minimum wage (NMW). 

The department’s deputy director Caroline Kwetepane this week revealed that three years since the introduction of the NMW, some employers continue to exploit and violate the law by underpaying domestic workers.

The NMW was reviewed and adjusted from R21.69 in 2021 to R23.19 for each ordinary hour worked for 2022, with effect from March 1.

“In addition to being underpaid, domestic workers are not given contracts of employment, not handed payslips, not registered for injuries on duty, not registered for Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) benefits and not given extended leave benefits, among other violations,” said Kwetepane.

The term domestic work means work performed in or for a household or households. It can also include a gardener, a person employed by a household as a driver, and a person who takes care of children, the aged, the sick, the frail or the disabled.

“It is also illegal and an unfair labour practice for an employer to unilaterally alter hours of work or other conditions of employment in implementing the NMW. The NMW is the amount payable for ordinary hours of work and does not include payment of allowances (such as transport, tools, food or accommodation), payments in kind (board or lodging), tips, bonuses and gifts,” she said. 

According to Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) commissioner Matome Selapisa, the CCMA has since April adjudicated more than 538 cases related to the implementation of the NMW and Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) in the domestic worker sector.

Selapisa said, among other things, these related to dismissal for operational reasons related to the NMW Act, claims for failure to pay any amount owing, disputes relating to compliance orders, claims for failure to pay any amount owing in terms of the NMW Act, requests to make a written undertaking an arbitration award and unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment. 

From April 2021 to March 31 2022, the CCMA adjudicated more than 1,215 cases in the domestic worker sector. 

Selapisa said in terms of BCEA matters regarding nonpayment, these can be referred directly to the CCMA if one earns below the ministerial threshold of R224,080 per annum.