A controversial National Bargaining Council wage agreement in the clothing industry has been extended, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union said yesterday.
"This is a significant development and a great victory for [union] members," it said.
"It further strengthens our previous claim that those employers who secured a recent judgment [in the Pietermaritzburg High Court] have won a temporary and hollow victory."
In March, the Pietermaritzburg High Court set aside a decision by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to extend compliance with the "national main collective agreement" of the National Bargaining Council to companies in the clothing industry that were not party to the agreement.
The court ruling meant that clothing manufacturers that were not part of the council did not have to apply the minimum wage agreements.
But the extension gazetted by Oliphant made its terms legally binding on all clothing employers and all clothing workers in all parts of South Africa, the union said.
It also empowered the National Bargaining Council to prosecute employers who did not comply with the agreement's provisions.
"We recognise and applaud those non-party employers who have already voluntarily implemented the new minimum wage levels, without the compulsion of a ministerial gazette," the union said.
"They constitute the vast majority of employers in the industry. We will continue to work constructively with them."
The union said employers who failed to comply with the wage deal would face its "now gazetted and extended 'unfettered right' to strike" .
"We now require all employers, such as those in non-metro areas like Newcastle, Isithebe, Botshabelo, Mogwase, and Ladysmith, as well as those employers who ran to court instead of joining the wage negotiations, to immediately comply with the law by implementing the now extended agreement," the union said.
Five Taiwanese-owned factories and the United Clothing and Textile Association asked the court to set aside the minimum wages set by the bargaining council.
Judge Piet Koen ruled that companies that were not members of the council could hold separate talks about pay levels with their workers.
He reportedly said that less than half of the employees in the clothing industry were represented by the National Bargaining Council.
Oliphant has given notice that the extension will come into effect next Tuesday and has extended its duration until the end of August 2016.
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