Exploitation of wine and fruit workers exposed
The false argument that South African workers are "over-protected by inflexible labour laws", which is constantly being repeated by business leaders and commentators, without a shred of evidence to back it up, has been dealt a body-blow by a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the conditions of workers in the Western Cape wine and fruit industries.
The report - "Ripe with Abuse: Human Rights Conditions in South Africa's Fruit and Wine Industries", based on more than 260 interviews with farm workers, farm owners, civil society members, industry representatives, government officials, lawyers, union officials, and academic experts - reveals that these workers are certainly not ‘over-protected' but grossly exploited.
The Western Cape's fruit and wine industries contribute billions of rand to the country's economy, support tourism, and are enjoyed by consumers around the world, yet their farm workers are among the lowest-paid, do not enjoy secure tenure rights and long-time residents on farms are threatened with eviction.
Farm workers land tenure rights are protected under the 1997 Extension of Security of Tenure Act, yet the report quotes estimates that more than 930,000 people were evicted from South African farms between 1994 and 2004.
The HRW confirms the many reports COSATU and FAWU have been receiving over many years - of harassment and even physical assaults. Farmers sometimes resort to illegal tactics to get farm dwellers to leave, including cutting electricity or water. In one case HRW found, farm managers cut electricity for more than a year for a family with two children. Security guards on the farm harassed families in the middle of the night with dogs.
Although it is a crime for owners to evict occupiers from land without following required procedures, HRW confirmed evidence from COSATU, particularly in the North West, that the authorities rarely initiate criminal proceedings. And even when farmers follow legal procedures, evicted farm dwellers often have no place to go. Municipal governments are generally unprepared to assist them, and some end up homeless.
The report also found that some workers' houses are uninhabitable. One worker showed them a former pig stall, with no electricity, water, or protection from the elements where he has lived with his wife and children for 10 years.
Occupational health and safety conditions on many farms endanger workers. Most current and former farm workers interviewed had been exposed to pesticides without adequate safety equipment. Many employers jeopardize workers' health by not providing them with access to drinking water, hand washing facilities, or toilets, even though these are required by labour regulations. When workers are ill or injured, as is fairly common in this line of dangerous work, they are almost always refused the paid sick leave required by law unless they provide a medical certificate.
Even the notorious and hazardous "dop" system, survives on two farms documented by HRW. It quoted one worker as saying: "During the week, I am given wine in the afternoon, at 12pm, and at 6pm in the evening. I also get this on Saturdays. On Sundays, we get wine in the morning, afternoon and evening. In the morning, we get it before 7am, at 12pm, and we have to do Sunday prayer and then get more wine at 6.30pm. If you don't want the wine, then it's your choice. Everybody is drinking except the children and the guy driving the school bus."
HRW concede that in a small number of cases, workers and farm owners were complying with the law, and some positive practices by employers went beyond the legal requirements. Some give workers land to grow their own crops, pay the full cost of medical visits, provide free food to workers in the winter, or have set up trusts that benefit workers. Farmers who provided these benefits to workers noted that these efforts can be profitable.
But these are the exceptions that prove the rule - that the majority of workers are under-paid, exploited and ill-treated. Rather than face up to theses serious allegations, Su Birch, chief executive of Wines of South Africa, defended the employers with the absurd charge that: "Most of the farm workers interviewed were identified by unions and NGOs, who have a vested interest in presenting the worst of cases."
The challenge for COSATU and FAWU is that farm workers are not highly organised. HRW estimate the percentage of workers in trade unions in the Western Cape agricultural sector at 3%, compared with 30% among those with formal employment nationally. Unsurprisingly HRW also found what COSATU knows to be the case - that although the right to organise is protected under South Africa's constitution, some farmers try to prevent workers from forming unions.
What is absolutely beyond dispute however is that these workers are not getting the protection they are entitled to from the labour laws. At the time HRW conducted its research, in March 2011, the Western Cape had 107 labour inspectors, responsible for inspecting over 6,000 farms and all other workplaces in the province.
The issue is: where will this meagre number of inspectors be when the youth wage subsidy has been introduced, to ensure that it is not abused by unscrupulous bosses?
This report gives powerful ammunition to the Living Wage Campaign, and makes nonsense of the argument that South Africa has ‘inflexible' labour laws that give workers too much protection.
Statement issued by FAWU and COSATU, August 29 2011
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