South African farm workers will get a minimum wage from next March, the minister of labour announced on Monday despite opposition from employers.
Membathisi Shepherd Mdladlana said workers in higher income areas would earn at least R800 before deductions for a month’s labour, while those in poorer area would get R650 from the time the rules took effect in March 2003.
Agri SA, representing the country’s farmers, said the news was not good, even though it had been expected.
”The announcement that this wage would now be introduced is still unwelcome news,” said Agri SA President Japie Grobler.
But the South African Agricultural, Plantation and Allied Workers’ Union said although the new wage fell below its demand for a uniform R1 200 per month, the move was a step in the right direction.
”My department has to take responsibility for improving the lot of the farmworker in terms of labour related issues, particularly working conditions,” Mdladlana said in a speech prepared for delivery at a farm in the Western Cape province.
”The stark picture of farm worker poverty, coupled with the clear correlation between the income of farm workers and access to housing, literacy and household services, clearly revealed the need for a minimum wage,” he added.
While the minister said the minimum wage was no panacea for rural poverty and setting its level too high could do more harm than good, he added that this would not be the last time he would act to protect vulnerable workers.
He said the wage would get an annual increase in 2004.
Agri SA said few of its proposals had been incorporated into the minister’s decision, and that the minimum wage represented more than just a safety net.
It said labour was agriculture’s largest cost, and the wage levels would harm expansion of the jobs market. – Reuters