§ Mr. Brockwayasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what are the monthly wages of the sugar plantation and asbestos workers in Swaziland who went on strike for an increase of £1 a month.
§ Mr. SandysThe minimum wage for a month of 26 working days for unskilled labour at the Ubombo Sugar Plantation is £4 10s., plus an attendance bonus which averages over £3 monthly for cane cutters; in addition the value of free rations is roughly £2 per month. Free quarters are also supplied.
At the Havelock Asbestos Mine the minimum unskilled cash wage for a working month of 26 shifts was raised from £4 16s. to £6 18s. just before the strike which began on 20th May. The company's estimate of the average African monthly cash wage in February, 1963, was £6 10s. Free rations, in addition to the basic wage, are valued at £2 10s. for single men and £3 10s. for married men per month. The monthly value of free quarters is 30s. for single and 50s. for married men. The demand of the strikers was for a territorial minimum wage of £1 per day without free rations or quarters. This would have amounted to a monthly minimum wage of £26.