Pretoria - The Department of Labour is conducting countrywide public hearings on the garden and landscaping services to determine minimum wages for the sector.
The public hearings, which have traversed other provinces, are today being held in Durban at the Tropicana Hotel, 85 OR Tambo (Marine Parade).
They will continue on Thursday in Richards Bay at Protea Hotel Empangeni, 64 Turnbull Street and in Newcastle, 29 Scott Street on Friday next week.
The national public hearings are being held to establish a sectoral determination (SD), which prescribes minimum wages and conditions of employment for this sector.
The garden and landscaping services sector includes activities such as digging, raking, mowing, spreading, mixing, watering, trimming hedges, weeding, felling or removing trees or other vegetation or planting under supervision.
The hearings are held to engage both employers and workers on issues such as the categories of workers to be covered by the sectoral determination; the factors to be taken into consideration when setting minimum wages; determining the mechanism to be used for setting minimum wages and annual increases, including the level at which minimum wages should be pegged and any other conditions related to operations within the sector.
The national public hearings are expected to conclude in Mpumalanga with hearings in Nelspruit at the Department of Labour Centre at 29 Brown Street, Packade Building, on 15 October.
This will be followed by another session in Ermelo’s Msukaligwa Municipality in Taute Street on 16 October.
The last hearing will be held at Witbank’s Department of Labour Centre boardroom at corner Beaty and Hofmeyer Streets on 17 October.
The garden and landscaping services sector currently has no sectoral determination.
Currently, most of the employers in the sector comply with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA). – SAnews.gov.za
