Clothing employers dismiss productivity report

Although the sector is beginning to stabilise, it has struggled to compete with cheap Chinese clothing imports over the past couple of years, resulting in significant job losses.

Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) general secretary Andre Kriel said last week that recent data compiled by Productivity SA showed that between 2005 and 2010, labour productivity for the sector had increased by 73%, far outstripping the 54% growth in real earnings over the same period.

However, Apparel Manufacturers of SA (Amsa) director Johann Baard said the research was not "valid".

"Not only is the research not valid, the research on labour productivity as opposed to sector/manufacturing productivity does not exist," he said. "Sactwu is conflating worker productivity with multifactor sector manufacturing output. The two are very different concepts."

Baard said Sactwu had effectively not provided information to substantiate their "claim" that worker productivity had increased. "I suspect that the increase in productivity cited is a crude calculation of the amount of output compared with the number of workers employed."

He said clothing workers in SA were the highest paid in Africa. Local workers were also paid more than those in mainland China and India - the sector's biggest competitors, he said.

Kriel said it was not a surprise that employers had reacted "so defensively". "It is amazing how they (Amsa) now dismiss what is good news for the industry, by painting an untrue picture of doom and gloom, when all key indicators, not only productivity, clearly show that the clothing sector is in much better shape now than it has been for many years."

Source: Business Day