EFF calls on Minister Nxesi to strictly enforce compliance and implementation of the minimum wage for farm workers
14 February 2021
The EFF welcomes the announcement on the revised and adjusted minimum wage of R21.69 per hour for farmworkers by the Department of Employment and Labour. For the first time in history, farmworkers' wages are aligned with national minimum wage. This 16 percent increase, although it is below inflation rate and makes no major dent on an already low-paid workers, takes the daily earnings of farmworkers from a previous R18.68 to R21.69 per hour, meaning that, workers will now take home about R350 more per month. This comes into effect from the 1st of March 2021.
The EFF has in the past raised the plight, living and working conditions of farmworkers and farm dwellers. We brought a draft motion which is now a parliament resolution to look into the both the living and working conditions of farmworkers.
The parliamentary inquiry into this matter must start in earnest as the working conditions which are characterised by daily retrenchment, displacement and evictions of workers in farms are worsening.
Low payment of farmworkers has ripple effects on workers as it pushes these workers and their families deep into poverty. The working conditions of farm dwellers and workers working for a sector predominately formal and commercial sector which is controlled by white farmers in agriculture, hunting, game farming, forestry and fishing remains one of the highly unchanged in the country compared to other sectors of the economy.
Minimum wage policy intervention is necessary because it provides social protection to vulnerable, un-unionised and low-paid workers like those in the farms with little or no bargaining power at all. When minimum wages are determined by government, farmers often seek ways to undermine the system by introducing high-tech agricultural
through retrenchment, displacement and eviction of the very same low-paid workers that government policy is intended to protect.
Farmworkers in this country's agricultural sector are among the least paid workers; often exploited by employers because even though laws such as Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Labour Relations Act, and Extension of Security of Tenure Act are in place, extended and apply to the agricultural sector, exist only in theory. These acts failed to improve the working conditions of the agricultural sector workers and farmworkers remain vulnerable and helpless victims in the hands of farm-owners.
The EFF further calls on government to ensure that the Labour and Employment Department closes all loopholes that farmers often exploit to avoid compliance and further ensure that they are not allowed to opt out of this sectoral determination. This is a decisive, yet modest victory for farmworkers.
Government must strictly enforce compliance by ensuring that it dispatches inspectors who themselves are well trained, properly equipped and have state law enforcement support to ensure that non-compliance is severely dealt with and crashed.
EFF will always lend a hand whenever it is called upon to do so, invited or not, and shall always advocate for and be on the side of farmworkers.
Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 14 February 2021
