Pretoria – Taxi operators have called on the Department of Labour to extend the transport subsidy scheme to the taxi industry.
The operators were attending the public hearings on the taxi and hospitality sectors’ wages and employment conditions in Rustenburg, in the North West on Wednesday.
The department’s Assistant Director: Employment Standards, Mogodi Masenya, said the South African taxi industry called on the department’s public hearings to extend the transport subsidy scheme to the industry if it wants it to effect the minimum wage determination in their sector.
According to Masenya, the taxi sector said the distortions prevailing in the market, wherein trains and buses were receiving ‘inflated’ subsidies to their exclusion could no longer be sustained.
Masenya said the taxi industry played a pivotal role in the economic chain of South Africa.
The public hearings will move to Gauteng on Thursday. Hearings will be held at Patterson Park Recreation Centre, Orange Groove starting at 11am. The hospitality sector public hearing will be held at the same venue on March 8, starting at 11am.
The public hearings kicked-off on February 18 in Mpumalanga.
The joint public hearings and on-site visits in the hospitality and the taxi sectors are geared towards reviewing the minimum wages and conditions of employment in the two sectors.
Once the hearings are concluded in all provinces, the department will forward all the inputs to the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC) – the body that advises the minister on wages and other working conditions.
The ECC will make recommendations to the minister who will then make final determinations for the sectors. – SAnews.gov.za
