It seems the Department of Labour has put its foot down with a heavy hand and told clothing manufacturers to pay the minimum wage - or close. Brilliant! As it is, the clothing industry is under strain and while I am the first to agree that everyone should be paid a fair wage, minimum wages by their very nature are double-edged swords. The department's ruling has apparently put 15 000 clothing worker jobs at risk, and if those workers lose their jobs through the factories closing, that's 15 000 workers out of work and claiming UIF. There's no easy answer, but tell me - would you rather have a job at a salary of, say, R4000 a month, or no job at a salary of R5000? It's an easy choice for me. The threat of closures could also have a further knock-on effect, as clothing retailers, unsure of their supply chain, switch to importing. And just to keep you really cheerful, those producers of precious metal - our cars - are also hurting. The strike engulfing vehicle parts suppliers is hitting component exports and the availability of new vehicles and car parts. Lose an export order these days, or any day for that matter, and your foreign customers quickly look elsewhere, and you lose the market - and that can almost certainly mean factory closures or retrenchments locally. Strikers need to beware - they could be striking themselves out of a job. Permanently.

Rod Baker, Retail editor
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