Nearly 2 000 farmers, many from the Western Cape, have applied for exemption from the minimum wage for farm workers.
|||Cape Town - Nearly 2 000 farmers, many from the Western Cape, have applied for exemption from the minimum wage for farm workers.
Labour Minister Mildred Olifant told a press briefing on Thursday, following her department’s budget vote speech, that 1 988 farmers had applied for exemption from the new R105-a-day wage included in the sectoral determination for farmworkers.
Last year farm strikes started in De Doorns as workers protested against the R69-a-day minimum wage.
The strikes spread and turned violent, resulting in the destruction of property and at least two deaths.
Workers demanded R150 a day, but earlier this year the Labour department decided on a new daily minimum wage of R105.
Farmers who said they could not afford to pay the increased wage were given an opportunity to apply for exemption, but were required to provide the relevant proof.
Les Kettledas, deputy director-general of labour policy and industrial relations
in the department, said the highest number of applications for exemption had come from the Western Cape, followed by Mpumalanga, Free State and Limpopo.
Already 470 of these applications, representing around 32 500 workers, had been declined.
Kettledas indicated that many of those denied applications had not included financial statements or proof that the farmers had consulted with their workers on the wage issue.
“Until such time as they provide those, their applications will be denied,” he said.
About 64 applications for exemption, representing 7 500 workers, had been approved.
In her budget speech, Olifant said the department would introduce or amend several pieces of legislation to secure the rights of workers, among them farmworkers and domestic workers.
The department was hard hit in the past year by massive labour disputes in many of these sectors.
Amendments to the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, which are in the works, would include farmworkers and domestic workers not entitled nor covered by this legislation.
Domestic workers have also been recognised in proposed amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
The amendments, which the department says are “largely technical” and therefore unlikely to be opposed, have already been determined to be affordable and legal by actuaries and attorneys.
The National Treasury has been consulted, but the amendments still need to go before the cabinet, and be released for public comments.
Olifant said domestic workers would, following the amendments, be able to access maternity leave benefits from the fund.
Other planned amendments to the UIF include an extension of the benefits period from eight months to a year.
Women going on maternity leave will also be paid an income replacement rate of 38 to 66 percent of their salaries.
In addition, the period of time family members would have to claim death benefits from the fund would be extended from six months to a year.
This, Olifant said, was to observe various cultures and their mourning processes.
Weekend Argus