Ann Eveleth
Today’s farmworkers are a vocal bunch. Not only do they know that they are getting the short end of the stick, but also that the battery of new land and labour laws are supposed to protect them, and they have strong ideas on why these measures are falling short.
Joining forces with about 500 rural people from all nine provinces in a Rural People’s Convention in Bloemfontein, farmworker delegates and representatives helped craft a Rural Charter which they believe will help them gain an equitable share of South Africa’s rural hinterland.
The farmworkers share a vision of a future where the land they have worked, often for decades, can be their own; where their children will earn degrees in agriculture instead of skipping school to pick oranges; and where the home they return to after a hard day’s work will be lit, warm and spacious, with more than just pap on the table; and where they will retire with more than just their last pay cheque. That vision resonates throughout the Rural Charter.
”We demand …that farmworkers receive the title deeds to the land on which their houses are built; that farmworkers be targeted as beneficiaries of land reform; that houses for farmworkers must not be smaller than 50m2, with electricity, running water and sanitation in the house; a minimum wage, with mechanisms to prevent retrenchments; that heavy fines are imposed on farmers who use child labour or contravene labour laws,” states the Rural Charter.
But the expectations of South Africa’s six million farmworkers have moved beyond mere provision of basic necessities. ”We demand that the Extension of Security of Tenure Act be rewritten to become a law to stop evictions and only cater for evictions under exceptional circumstances,” was the call of farmworkers, after two years’ experience with the law they thought would protect them.
”The Act only provides a procedure for evictions,” argued one delegate.”We need the Labour Relations Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act to be rewritten for farmworkers, after negotiation,” says Gary Twigg of the Farm Food and Rural Workers Support Association from the Western Cape. ”These laws don’t work the same on the farms as in the factories,” he adds.
Twigg’s plea was reflected in a charter demand that ”labour legislation must be reviewed in consultation with farmworkers, NGOs, community-based organisations and trade unions to enhance organisational rights and empowerment for farmworkers”. The bottom line was that while legislation is one thing, enforcement in the conservative farming sector is quite another.
”We demand that inspectors from the departments of labour and land affairs are sent out to ensure that laws protecting farmworkers’ rights are obeyed by farm owners and police …We demand that the departments of labour and land affairs make accurate information on laws and rights accessible to farmworkers … We demand that farmers’ unions convince their members to allow NGOs and trade unions on to the farms …We demand that registration of farmworkers by farmers become compulsory to enable monitoring of [labour laws]; We demand that the rights of migrant workers are protected to prevent illegal labour from undermining farmworker rights and wage levels,” states the Rural Charter.
Several delegates complained about the difficulties in organising farmworkers in a hostile farm climate, and some called for farmworkers to form their own associations to counter the organised power of employers, but other delegates said this would be counter-productive. The charter demands instead that ”NGOs and community- based organisations must support and speed up the unionisation of farm workers”.
But some delegates complained that it was impossible to enforce existing laws because labour inspectors rarely arrive in time to see the harsher realities of farm life. Labour inspectors have to notify employers before visits, enabling farmers to visibly improve working conditions ahead of inspection. In spite of these gaps, the farmworkers are not lowering their expectations. They demand the same benefits as their urban counterparts, including that ”a negotiated provident fund and medical aid must be made compulsory”.
It remains to be seen whether the emerging Rural People’s Movement, a coalition of rural NGOs, community-based organisations and communities, can do more than the splintered rural union movement has done. The pressure is on, as the time to begin negotiating a sectoral minimum wage for farmworkers in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act approaches.