Michael Avery’s most recent Badger column refers (“A collective mess awaits the metals industry”, April 8).
Higher (or lower) wages are not the long-term problem in SA. The real problem is that wage increases (and remuneration generally) are not linked to productivity. In SA labour productivity is low and falling, and other costs (mainly administered) are increasing rapidly, above any acceptable rate of inflation.
If the minimum wage and high entry-level wages mean there is no cost-effective labour available, the move to automation and other types of labour restructuring to reduce production costs is inevitable.
Anti-business legislation generally, and that affecting smaller businesses specifically, has led to rapid deindustrialisation, which is also destroying the low end of the labour market.
The National Economic Development & Labour Council process has failed the private sector miserably, and nobody in government understands how business works, never mind the link to employment.
Ian Ferguson
Via BusinessLIVE
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