Nine hundred farmers across the country have applied for exemption from the new minimum wage for farmworkers.
|||Cape Town - Nine hundred farmers across the country have applied for exemption from the new minimum wage for farmworkers - and, according to estimates, nearly half of the applications are from farmers in the Western Cape.
This was revealed by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant on Thursday.
In De Doorns - the epicentre of the farmworkers strike - half of the 115 farmers are reported to have applied for exemption.
Black Agricultural Workers Union of SA general secretary Nosey Pieterse said he understood that more than 400 farmers in the province had applied for the exemption.
On Thursday Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich, who was at the forefront of the strike, slammed the move.
“There will be more strikes and bigger political action on the farms,” Ehrenreich said.
Pieterse, who also played a prominent role in the strike, also forecast renewed strikes.
“The workers are angry. They have fought for a new minimum wage for three months. There will be more strikes,” he said.
The strike by farmworkers in 15 Boland towns started in November and was marred by violence that claimed the lives of four people and destroyed property.
Police arrested hundreds of protesters on charges of public violence.
Following negotiations between the government, workers and unions, it was agreed to hike the minimum wage for farmworkers by 52 percent to R105 a day. After this deal, the strike was called off by Cosatu in January.
In terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Minister of Labour has the authority to grant an exemption on the grounds of affordability. Farmers who applied for the exemption had to submit financial records and proof that they had consulted workers.
Labour Department spokesman Page Biokanyo said the government would first look at how it could assist farmers before granting any exemption.
Meanwhile, farmers will be paying workers the normal minimum wage of between R69 and R90 until their applications have been processed.
Speaking during a panel discussion at UCT last night, hosted by the Industrial Relations Association of SA, Pieterse said strike-associated violence was the result of years of exploitation of workers and pent-up anger at conditions on farms.
Workers had now “liberated” themselves, but it was important they be unionised.
Agri-SA policy advisor Annelize Crosby said paying R105 a day could force farmers to retrench. But even R150 a day, the workers’ original demand, was not enough to pay a worker. “Because the majority of farmers can’t pay a decent salary, there must be government intervention,” Crosby said.
jason.felix@inl.co.za and jan.cronje@inl.co.za
Cape Times