Employment conditions commission

Submission from the East Cape Agricultural Research Project (ECARP).

ECARP is a non-profit organisation which strives to promote the human and socio-economic rights of farm workers, dwellers and rural communities by positively transforming their working and living conditions. ECARP is committed to providing support to rural workers and communities in their endeavours to address inequalities and injustices, and to ensure that they are active agents in the reconstruction and development processes.

According to ECARP, their submission to the Department of Labour (DoL) is based on the on-going research programme into labour and land terms and conditions on commercial farms as well as on the interactions and feedback from workers. According to ECARP, despite the introduction of the minimum wage for farm workers and the annual adjustments that have accompanied it over the past ten years, farm workers’ wages remain very low. As a result the purpose of the minimum wage as an instrument for reducing poverty levels and improve the standards of living of farm workers has not been realised. They indicated that perhaps an opportunity to overcome historical legacy of inequalities between farm workers and farmers has been missed and a call for a review of the minimum wage comes hardly nine months into the three-year cycle ending in February 2015. ECARP argue that this came as a result of actions by farm workers in De Doorns and surrounding areas have undertaken, and further suggest that perhaps this offers an opportunity to reflect on how the system has and continue to fail farm workers and dwellers. According to ECARP, there seems to be a general acknowledgement that farm workers’ wages, in particular, are exceedingly low, however, a lot of focus has being placed on how business may be affected by higher wages and less on the social aspects and eroding wage inequalities in South Africa. South Africa, at a Gini co-efficient above 0.64, is the most unequal society in the world.

ECARP alleged that the huge inequalities are also reflected in the fact that the poorest 20 per cent of the population earns about 2.3 per cent of national income, while the richest 20 per cent earns about 70 per cent of the national income. The inequalities can again be reflected in terms of race. They also indicated that in 2008, median expenditure per capita for Africans was R454 a month compared to whites at R5 668 a month (the diagnostic Report Planning Commission 2010). The setting of prescribed minima ought to be assessed in the context of corroding wage inequalities and not only in relation to employment levels as is so often the case.

In their submission, they following salient points are highlighted:

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  The low levels at which the minimum wage is set and its inadequate upgrading mechanisms.
  
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  The context of farm workers and dwellers necessitates an inter-departmental approach, more particularly a synergy between the Department of Labour (DoL), Department of Agriculture (DoA) and Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR).
  
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  A need to pair the minimum wage with other potential sources of social protection such as land access, food security and access to basic services in rural communities.
  
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  Efforts towards a ‘high road’ approach to labour relations and agricultural production.
  

Furthermore ECARP in their submission indicated that they recently conducted research which looked at the movement of farm workers’ wages between March 2010 and February 2012. In their research, a total of 460 farm workers were interviewed over the two year period. The findings of the study revealed that a total of 73 workers were paid below the amount of R1000.00 between March 2010 and February 2011. Workers earning between R1001 and R1500 declined from 243 to 188. There was an increase in terms of the number of workers within the ranges of R1501 to R2500 and above R2501 with increases of 63 to 75 and 13 to 18 respectively. From the results of the study, it is clear that the nominal increases in the wages of farm workers are very low and applying to a small number of workers. According to ECARP, the average wage has increased with R89.21 over the two year period between 2009 and 2011. Over the same period, differences can be noticed in terms of the status of employment. For full-time workers the average wage has increased by R141.83, for casual/part-time workers it increased by R24.00 and for seasonal workers it declined by R162.02.

ECARP also submitted that some of the key findings of their research regarding the implementation and the enforcement of the sectoral determination have been:

That the sectoral determination particular the minimum wages have failed to undo the historical legacy of the poverty, inequality, paternalistic practices, gender and race discrimination;

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  That compliance with the determination is selective and affects workers differently based on their gender, status of employment and the product markets;
  
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  That the introduction of the minimum wage has not led to the improved housing and access to basic services by farm workers; and
  
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  There have not been positive changes in relation to labour relations
  

In line with LRS, ECARP indicated that between 2006 and 2012, the nominal wage of a farm worker increased by R509.90 but inflation over this period eroded most of this gain. They indicated that the net increase in the minimum wage minus what has been eroded by the inflation translate to an increase of R80 in six years or an average annual increase of R13.33.

In their recommendations, ECARP submitted that:

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  The uprating mechanisms of a minimum wage be widened from its narrow focus on the cost of living to incorporate other factors that play a role in securing a dignified quality of life. The minimum wage provisions to be implemented alongside land and service delivery to farm workers and to arrive at this position, ECARP calls for the establishment of an-intergovernmental committee to explore different forms of uprating mechanisms and the integration of land and service delivery with the minimum wage provisions
  
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  That there is a need to assess the distribution of power and economic gains along agriculture value chains
  
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  That there must be a concerted effort to help farm workers to establish formations that they feel comfortable with that are suitable to their circumstances and that they own and control.
  

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