This morning we had to go and find some casual workers to help offload containers and it was a struggle. In South Africa there are certain road corners where unemployed line up hoping for someone to come and employ them for the morning or the day. Some days there are hundreds in these queues. You would think employing someone offering them a days work would be easy.
The minimum wage in SA is R28.79 per hour and we only needed the casuals for 6 bours and offered R200 for the job. I was a little taken back when they started negotiating for higher pay which I refused and drove away. There are enough people looking for work who would appreciate a days pay and in our area there are half a dozen known areas to pick up casual workers. You just know your gut tells you the first group would be trouble and were unemployable. I have fired people after only 1 hour before because they were avoiding work hoping to do as little as possible.
Today is when they are paid their monthly grant/unemployment benefit of R350 which is peanuts for anyone who is working. I do not get their logic because earning R200 is better than nothing and my only thought is they do not want to work.
I know if I was in their position I would be grateful for any opportunity to earn some money and I would not care what the job was. How can you take the unemployed seriously as they are literally ganging up with each other agreeing they will have a minimum daily wage and they will not accept anything less. Obviously life is not tough enough because I know I would take any offer of employment if I was desperate and I have done so in the past. These people who are unemployed are either lazy or ignorant.
Eventually after a couple of phone calls one of the staff arranged two unemployed people who were happy to work the hours for the pay. What they are not seeing is if you can prove yourself as a decent worker there is always the chance that some company would see this and say we will employ him. In the past I have employed staff on this basis as there is nothing like a test run before you take someone on permanently.
When I look at my staff who are employed in the punch bag plant we must have churned through more than 20 people and this has not even been operating for a year. One employee has been promoted out of this section as he has proved himself. This is how it should be as there has to be a starting point before finding a better position within a business.
Two weeks ago I was reminded by an ex employee of mine who I had employed in 2005 as a bubble wrapper cleaner. He has been with the company for 20 years and is now an account manager and is only there because he was given an opportunity. He was 18 at the time and has only worked for one company so knows no different. Plenty of people have come and gone since then and how many of those are unemployed?
When you know the unemployment in the country is only going to get worse finding a job should be what is important no matter what that job might be. We all know that it is easier to find a better job once you are employed as the pressure is not on you. The unemployment rate is over 60% for 16-34 year old's and would say higher if you include those who are not documented. This morning there must have been foreigners in the queue on the corner of the road that I visited so the numbers are far worse than what are stated.