Cape Town - Farm activists have rejected the announced increase in the minimum wage for farmworkers and domestic workers by 9.6% saying the ministry is not touched with reality.
Alvina Abrahams, a farmworker activist with the Farm Workers Association said the increase is still a little bit of money compared to the working and living conditions of workers.
Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has raised the minimum wage for farmworkers and domestic workers with effect from March 1.
The increase will also cover workers employed in the expanded public works programme, learnership allowances, the cleaning sector, and wholesale and retail. The percentage increase for farmworkers and domestic workers will translate to R25.42 an hour, while the EPWP will be R13.97 for the same duration.
Minister Nxesi said: “The National Minimum Wage Act was agreed to with the aim of protecting low-earning workers in South Africa and providing a platform for inequality reduction.”
The introduction of a minimum wage in South Africa was a significant labour market intervention that had benefited about 6 million workers.
He said these workers were generally unorganised and vulnerable, and without the introduction of the National Minimum Wage Act, they would have continued to endure exceedingly low wage levels and poverty.
This increase will benefit 892 000 domestic workers, who are mostly women, and 800 000 farmworkers. Cleaners in metropolitan areas will also receive R27.97, while the rest of the country will get R25.50.
Abrahams said the increase of the minimum wage is a disgrace for the farmworkers and the war to champion farmworkers’ rights was far from over.
She said with all the challenges that farmworkers are facing every day in the farms, the little money they have given them is not even enough to feed the cat in the house.
“Farmworkers continue to be abused by farm owners, working long hours in bad weather conditions and being paid peanuts, and there are many who are still not registered as employees and are being paid with a bottle of wine. We hope the labour ministry can also take a deep look at their working conditions,” said Alvina.