The Congress of South African Trade Unions in Mpumalanga is ready to lead the protest march on International Day for Decent Work, on 7 October, to fight against the exploitation of farm workers. The campaign is necessitated by the manner in which workers in the farming sector are ill-treated and their rights being violated.

The following are issues of violation by the companies:

1. National Minimum Wage - Insistence on sticking to NMW instead of using this as the base to improve the hourly rate - pinning to the argument that it is what the law prescribes and that these workers deserve not a penny more than the minimum wage.
2. Sick leaves- no-payment of sick leaves despite having valid medical certificates.
3. Unlawful deductions: the deductions of uniform amount not authorized by law.
4. Freedom of association - Workers are threatened with dismissals if they associate with or join any union.
5. Overtime & Public Holidays - time more than ordinary hours of work not paid accordingly or at all, holidays paid at normal rates.
6. Poor housing facilities - with no electricity or running water thus compromising their health and wellbeing.
7. Access to education - Children growing from these farms run a huge risk of missing formal education, of starting late or of dropping early from school, mostly at elementary or primary level.
8. Child labour - marked increase in the agricultural sector in recent years.
9. Transport - transportation of workers to and from work still done on open bakkies and trucks much against the elements of cold, wind and rain.
10. Pay slips & late Payments of salaries - not furnished in time or at all to make any pay queries and the grace period provided for in law for late payment of salaries greatly abused.
11. Provident fund benefit - non provision of this benefit or worse still not submitting to fund administrators or not submitting schedules for allocation as required.
12. UIF - deducting but not submitting accordingly to the Labour Department.
13. Skills Development - there is no effort from the part of the employers to train these workers and to be accredited in the disciplines in which they ply their trade.
14. Equal pay for work of equal value - women remain vastly discriminated upon as they receive or get paid far lesser than their counterparts. Upward mobility is also a pipe dream for them.
15. Evictions and barring families to grave sides - farms evictions are also the order of the day and for those families who want to visit the graves of their loved ones, it's a tough exercise.
16. Documented & Undocumented foreigners - some farmers in the pursuit of profit and cheap labour continue to use cheap labour and to exploit them greatly. These workers do not join unions for obvious reasons thus reducing union density in the farms. Scarce skills are not set as a criterion for hiring them and most certainly no quotas followed, for instance at restaurants, car parks, hotels, private security industry, retail & wholesale etc.
17. Sexual harassment - sex for work and general abuse of woman are some of the most under reported occurrences in these sectors.
18. Discrimination - based on disability [for those differently abled finding jobs in these sectors is a tall order indeed]. The same goes with discrimination based on any other prohibited ground. A lot of education is needed to curb such.
19. Abuse of Fixed Terms Contracts - the use of fixed terms without any justifiable reasons for fixing the terms of these contracts for work that is not of a limited or definitive duration and then dumping these works after rolling over or renewing these contracts for successive terms.
20. Non-compliance with Health and Safety regulations.
21. Lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
22. Use of cheap labour by replacing permanent workers with contractors.

1. Non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage (NMW); instead, employers reduce working hours each time the NMW rate is gazetted.
2. Attacks on collective bargaining - workers are forced to settle for less due to the availability of many potential workers.
3. Issues related to Injuries on Duty (IOD) - employees are only transported to the gate outside the farm.
4. Refusal to meet with the union, only complying with Section 13 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).

The details of the action will take place as follows:

Date : 07 October 2024

Time : 10H00

Venue : Sonoma Investment Cc Farm (Komatipoort)

The action will be held in commemoration of International Day for Decent Work on 07 October 2024. This will be a protected action since the section 77 certificate has been granted for the action to happen and all workers are free to participate in the action without any victimisation by the employer.

We therefore urge every worker to take part in the action or stay away from work in defense of the rights of the workers for all and collective bargaining and fight against austerity measures and budget cuts.

The media is invited to cover the proceedings of the action.

Issued by COSATU MPUMALANGA

For more information, please contact:

Thabo Mokoena(COSATU Mpumalanga Provincial Secretary)

Cell: 0737502041

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