Organised agriculture in the Free State and Northern Cape farmers said on Thursday that massive retrenchment of farmworkers could be expected over the next six months.
A new two-tiered minimum wage system for the agricultural sector is to take effect on March 1.
”A scientific investigation into the expected effect has shown that thousands of farmworkers across the Free State will be retrenched soon,” Pieter Moller, manager of Free State Agriculture (FSA) said on Thursday at a joint media conference with the Northern Cape Agricultural Union (NCAU).
NCAU president Johannes Moller said a study by an independent agricultural economist had shown that a majority of farming enterprises would not be profitable after the introduction of the minimum wage and an expected land tax, especially in the highly productive irrigation areas of the lower Orange River.
The two farmers’ unions were announcing the results of two separate studies into the expected effect of the minimum wages, as announced recently by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana.
An FSA survey among its members showed that 71,6% of them could not afford the new wages. It would represent an average increase of almost 20% in the farmers’ total input cost.
An expected 38% of domestic workers on farms were to be retrenched, 40% of garden workers, 20% of livestock workers, eight percent of drivers, 17% of workshop assistants, 14% of dairy workers, and 25% of general workers, Moller said.
According to the two unions the first signs of an expected disastrous effect on rural economies were already showing as farmers moved to less labour-intensive practices.
”One farmer told me this week that he had already identified the blocks of established table grapes that he will start pulling out from next year. Only at this one farmer a capital investment of R2,5-million will be lost.
”I also know of large planned expansions, which would have created thousands of jobs, that were put on hold,” Moller said.
He said there may be a mistaken impression that farmers were against a minimum wage for farmworkers. ”We are not against a minimum wage. On the contrary, we are outspokenly in favour of it.
We are also not against the levels of wages per se that were announced by the minister.
”We are against the way in which the new regulations prescribe compilation of a worker’s compensation package, leaving only 10% of the total package for in natura compensation (such as rations).”
Farmers also asked for a uniform minimum wage instead of the announced two-tiered system of R650 in some districts and R800 in others; a lower apprenticeship wage for new entrants to the industry; the freedom to negotiate a total compensation package with workers without a fixed percentage for in natura payment, and separate provision for the seasonal workers’ pay.
”We accept that statutory measures are necessary. We even admit that there are certain cases of abuse (of farmworkers). But we have to negotiate those measures with each other so that they do not move outside the limitations of economic reality,” Moller said. – Sapa