Pretoria – The Department of Works has increased the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) participants’ wage rate from R88.00 to R92.31 per day from 1 November. This, the department said on Sunday, was in an effort to continue to steadily improve the socio-economic conditions of poor South Africans participating in the programme.
“All public bodies are therefore required to ensure that the wages are adjusted timely in order to comply with the requirements,” the department said.
This revised minimum wage refers to a wage rate per day and per task performed across all EPWP sectors in all spheres of government. The EPWP minimum wage increase annually and in line with the inflation rate, the department said.
“The EPWP is governed by the EPWP Ministerial Determination which is gazetted by the Minister of Labour, as a deviation from the Basic Conditions of Employment Act which outlines the working conditions of all EPWP participants who are employed across all EPWP sectors, namely: Infrastructure, Non-State Sector, Environment & Culture and Social Sectors,” the department said.
According to the EPWP Ministerial Determination, participants should work for 40 hours per week and they can also work on a task basis and the task sizes are governed by the average productivity of a worker in a day.
The Deputy Director-General for EPWP, Stanley Henderson, said there was a need for keeping up with the increased minimum wage.
“The increased EPWP minimum wage is compulsory to all the public bodies implementing the EPWP and there will be no excuse that will validate the payment of EPWP participants below the minimum wage and not adhering to the adjusted minimum wage as determined by the EPWP Ministerial Determination,” said Henderson.
He said the EPWP is a critical government initiative which makes a contribution towards a safety net to millions of South Africans who have socio-economic challenges and has the responsibility to provide for themselves and their families.
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