The "Civilised Labour Policy" and the private sector : the operation of the South African Wage Act, 1925-1937

The early history of South African industrial development has been approached from essentially two angles. One body of thought has concentrated on the adverse effect colour bars have had on the development of South Africa. It is argued that racial discrimination in industry originated from the racial prejudice of white workers and from state intervention in the economy. Opposed to that view is the interpretation that the colour bar originated out of the specific character and subsequent development of South African capitalism. This study approaches the debates and arguments through an analysis of the Wage Act of 1925. The industrial relations system which operates in South Africa has its origins in the legislation of the 1920s. It is based on the Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924 and the Wage Act of 1925. Very few systematic analyses of the Wage Act have been produced hitherto. Most commentators have focussed on single aspects of the Act, but very few have attempted an examination of the operation of the Wage Board which was established by the Act. The Wage Board was instituted as an element to promote the civilised labour policy in the private sector. Whereas the Industrial Conciliation Act operated to protect organised labour, the Wage Act concentrated on unorganised trades and sections of trades. Although empowered to investigate conditions in the mining industry, the Wage Board was never used to regulate wages in that industry under the Wage Act due to opposition from the industry. It was concerned solely with secondary industrial and manufacturing establishments because agriculture and domestic service were excluded from the Wage Act. The Wage Act was based on the principal of compulsory regulation. Determinations in terms of the Board's recommendations were binding on employees and employers alike. Complex procedures hampered the activity of the Board until 1930 when the Act was amended and simplified. The Board faced a great deal of opposition from manufacturers in its early years. But a cautious approach and the gradual implementation of determinations ensured that employers opposition soon changed to support when it became clear the Board was not an arbitrary one. The Board had to take a number of strict considerations into account. It could not recommend wages if its recommendation would affect the particular trade concerned adversely. It concerned itself with the promotion of efficiency in business, production costs, consumerism , the wasteful employment of labour, the length of the working day and the productivity of employees. As such it was used as a means to assist the necessary rationalisation and reorganisation of South African industry. It could not recommend wages without the Minister's express instructions if all the employees covered by a reference could not receive a civilised wage . Civilised wages were classified as wages at which employees could enjoy white standards of living. This clause effectively introduced a colour bar into wage determinations. It operated before 1930 to buttress Industrial Council Agreements to prevent the displacement of whites by Africans at lower rates. The Wage Board also considered investigations from unskilled, African workers. The Board was not permitted by law to discriminate against people of colour. Apart from the potential colour bar of wage regulation in general in South Africa, the Board was instructed in 1930 to refrain from issuing recommendations for African workers. Regulations were also altered to exclude Africans. The Wage Act declined in importance after the Great Depression as white workers were drawn closer to the wider-reaching Industrial Conciliation Act. The need to regulate African wages and to control African labour became more evident during the period of economic expansion in the 1930s. The Act was replaced in 1937 and the restrictions formerly placed on Africans were removed. The workforce had finally been separated with the provision of different industrial relations appartuses." "...Every industrial and commercial centre in England now possesses a working class divided into two hostile camps, English proletarians and Irish proletarians. The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he feels himself a member of the ruling nation and so turns himself into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists of his country against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker. His attitude towards him is much the same as that of the 'poor whites' to the 'niggers' in the former slave states of the USA. The Irishman pays him back with interest in his own money. He sees in the English worker at once the accomplice and the stupid tool of the English rule in Ireland. This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short, by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organisation. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And that class is fully aware of it." Marx to Siegfried Meyer and August Vogt April 9 1870 Marx and Engels Ireland and the Irish Question