Labour bills ignore farm workers: Fawu

Farmworkers have yet again been excluded from labour law amendments, the Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) said on Thursday.

"The department of labour must hang its head in shame for its non-protection of farmworkers," said Fawu parliamentary representative Gafieldien Benjamin.

He was speaking in Cape Town at the second round of public briefings on amendments to the Labour Relations Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

The Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association (Wieta) had asked if seasonal farm workers who worked at the same place every year would be considered permanent and safe from dismissal under the amendments.

Chief director of collective bargaining Thembinkosi Mkalipi's reply was that the inclusion of protection for temporary employees excluded those who worked seasonally, were on probation or were hired for a specific fixed-term project.

"We cannot force farm owners to employ people for 12 months if, by nature, they are only needed for three months," he said.

"[These amendments] are not applicable to seasonal workers... That is the nature of the business."

The amendments stated that temporary work would be defined as work that lasted no more than six months.

After six months, the worker had to be treated as permanent regardless of whether they were employed by a labour broker or by the company itself.

Wieta board chairman Mzukisi Mooi said after the briefing that the amendments would further marginalise farmworkers.

"This will further entrench the kind of situations where they don't have job security and in most cases, terms of remuneration and benefits," he said.

"There is more and more of a move towards casualisation of workers in the agriculture sector... they have become invisible workers."

Mooi said farm workers earned on average between R1 000 and R1 200 a month.

Most were employed for about six months a year, to help with pruning and harvesting of crops.

"Many are today worse off than they were before," Mooi said.

A visit to 21 Western Cape farms by Parliament's labour portfolio committee at the start of the year revealed that very few complied with labour regulations.