Farm workers march to demand services from the Department of Labour

Fed-up farm workers marched today to the Western Cape Department of Labour in Cape Town to plead with it to fulfill its mandate. Led by Women on Farms Project, they demanded better services from the inspectorate and the provision of Unemployed Insurance Fund (UIF) services to rural areas.

Ceres activist, Sindiswa Johanes said farm workers experience bad service when they visit the labour department to claim UIF in Ceres, Worcester and other areas. “Workers stand in long lines outside in the rain or in the sun at the department of labour in Ceres, Worcester and other areas,” she said.

Johanes said officials often turn farm workers away, though they may have waited in line from 5 a.m. until 4 p.m. “The workers spend about R200 on transport to the labour department only to be told to return the next day because their system is off,” she said. “While they are waiting for assistance, their babies get hungry and cry when they see other people eat food.”

Thugs rob the farm workers while they are sleeping outside the labour department’s offices to be at the front of the line, she said. “Some workers no longer claim their UIF monies because they are frustrated with the long lines and the system that is always off,” Johanes said.

De Doorns farm worker, Limpho Makoko said farmers endanger the health of farm workers in De Doorns.

“Farmers spray plants with pesticides while we work. The pesticides give us headaches, sinus and eye problems,” she said. “I use my own money to consult a doctor when the pesticides make me sick.”

Community activist from De Doorns, Pinky Gcinisa said she wants the labour department to visit farms to ensure farm workers have toilets. “Women relieve themselves anywhere on the farms in full view of men because they have no toilets. To do so lowers their dignity,” she said.

The department of labour must increase its staff in areas such as Worcester to assist farm workers trying to get their UIF monies, she said. The workers earn little money and get into debt having to borrow money for transport to the department.

The farms workers’ memorandum states that the department promised to visit farms after the farm workers report “labour rights violations on commercial farms”.

Women On Farms Project says that when labour department officials visit farms for inspection, they speak only to the farm owners and handpicked farm workers. Archive photo by Mzi Velapi

A history of Labour Department neglect

The workers were driven by frustration to submit a memorandum to “highlight the ongoing failure of the Department of Employment and Labour to uphold its mandate to enforce labour laws,” says the memorandum.

Collen Solomons, director of Women on Farms Project, has reported cases of injuries, exposure to pesticides, and non-payment of the national minimum wage and asked the department to inspect farms, but the inspectors fail to speak to the affected workers. When the officials visit farms for inspections, they speak to the farm owners or farm workers whom they have “handpicked”, she said.

Solomons said the officials get a “very partial view of what is actually happening on the farms” as they don’t walk through the vineyards.

The memorandum demands that the department “engage directly with affected workers during inspections.” Also, it calls for the department to speed up “the processing of UIF claims, particularly those of seasonal farm workers”, and to “improve transparency and case tracking by providing progress updates on referred cases within 30 days of submission”.