While the new national minimum wage took effect this year, millions of workers are still reliant on the country’s collective bargaining system where trade unions and employers negotiate for wage increases and improvements to various conditions of employment. During the 1980s most wage negotiations were done annually at company level. However, over the past two decades most wage agreements have been for a 3-year period and dealt with at centralized bargaining council level. This year there are a few negotiations taking place in key sectors such as platinum mining and a few major ones in 2020. In this week’s Workers on Wednesday slot we get an overview of what to expect in the forthcoming wage negotiations.