I employ a man to manage my garden and do basic housework once a week. It takes him about 6 hours to finish the job, for which I pay him R250 (around R40 per hour). He gets 2 days paid leave a year and a Christmas bonus of R1000. His income will increase next year in relation to my income increase.
As an ICU specialist nurse I earn just over one and a half times his hourly rate. My colleagues, all highly qualified black nurses, also employ domestic workers and gardeners. They pay their employees between R8-R15 per hour. No annual increases. (Discussions with them revealed these figures, and revealed their astonishmet at the "exhorbitant" rates I pay for domestic help.)
There are 1, 5 million domestic workers in this country registered with UIF. My employee is not one of them because his working hours per week do not cover him for UIF. He doesn't mind because he earns around R5000 per month which allows him to feed and house his family, plus invest R500 per month in unit trusts. He is one of 6-7 million unregistered domestic worrkers.
There are a total 4,8 million whites in this country of 50 million people. Assuming more than half are children means that there are 2 million adult whites. Assuming that many of them are married then just over a million whites employ domestic help. So who is exploiting the 5-6 million domestic workers and gardeners with obscenely low wages if not white employers??
What is a reasonable wage to pay gardeners, housekeepers, child-minders ... lets have the debate that COSATU is not interested in ... because, as demonstrated in COSATU's stone-throwing attack on the DA march on Tuesday, they are only interested in the 2million formally employed members who pay Zwelinzima Vavi and Jim Irwin R600,000+benefits every year through their union subscriptions ... and none of these Vavi-paying workers is one of the 7 million domestic employees.. which is one of the issues the DA is trying to bring to the employment table.
Are any of you loud-mouthed News24 commentators, black and white, honest enough to confess the exploitative wages you pay to your domestic helper? ... and how many of you loud-mouthed News24 commentators supported COSATU's despicable attack on the DA's wage subsidy while paying your domestic helper criminally low wages?
Confess?? .... NEVER!!!! ... you would rather lie to yourselves and VIVA ANC/COSATU FOREVER!!
May your children forgive you .. though its unlikely, considering how the sins of Apartheid's fathers have been visited on their children ... your children will do the same and reject your obscene human rights violations ..... history always repeats itself .
... from a Proud DA supporter who backs the DA's efforts to ensure domestic workers can can have employee rights despite COSATU's denial of their existance because they get no financial benefit from domestic employment.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
