Lesotho textile bosses halt govt minimum wage move in court
By Day Break Reporter
Employers in Lesotho’s textile industry have teamed up to block the government from announcing a 2,000 maloti minimum wage for the sector’s striking workers using a hastily-obtained court injunction.
On August 9 this year, unionised workers from United Textile, Lentsoe la Sechaba, LEWA, NACTU and ADUI downed tools and stayed away from work over delays by the Lesotho government to announce the minimum wage for the textile factory workers.
“On the 9th of August we started the stay away but on the same day the spokesperson of the government announced that they had taken a decision to give factory workers 2,000 as minimum wage,” one of the affected workers told the Day Break News from Maseru. “So workers returned to work the following day while they were still waiting for the government to release the gazette. But unfortunately the day the promised gazette was to be released, the union of employers stopped that through a court order.”
The factory workers, as a result, decided to continue the strike pending Thursday’s court hearing in the minimum wage matter.
According to the aggrieved factory workers, employer organisations that are opposed to the 2,000 maloti minimum wage for the textile workers are the Lesotho Textile Association and Lesotho Employers’ Bureau.
