Farmworkers’ wage increase ‘means nothing’
Despite minimum wage increases, farm workers cannot keep up with rising food prices and costs of living.
|||Cape Town - When she dies her two children will be left with nothing materially, only memories of her, says farmworker Anna Mankepan.
Mankepan, 39, is a single mother and milks cows to make a living.
She and her two young children live on Kwepperfontein farm outside Ceres,
about 150km from Cape Town.
Peaches, pears and apples are also grown on the farm and during peak season about 80 workers are employed.
The Department of Labour last week announced that from next month the daily wage for a farmworker working nine hours a day will be R128.26, up from R120.32.
The hourly rate of R13.37 will increase to R14.25, the weekly rate of R601.61 will increase to R641.32 and the monthly rate of R2 606.78 will increase to R2 778.83.
Unions have criticised the increases and said a loaf of bread costs more than the increase in the daily rate.
For Mankepan - with her average weekly wage of about R400 after deductions - she is able to feed her family and provide the basic necessities, but nothing more. Ten percent of her wages goes to rent and when Mankepan works overtime and earns more money, she has to pay more for rent.
She worries about what would become of her children when she dies: “When I die, my children will have to find work. I can’t save any money in a bank or put money away for when I die or retire. When I die it will be with that last paycheck in my hand. The increase does not mean that much to me because with the cost of food rising as it is now, I will go home with the same amount of money,” Mankepan said.
The department applied the consumer price index, excluding owner’s equivalent rent - which is lower than what the department used - to calculate minimum wage increases.
The department’s acting spokesperson, Mokgadi Pela, said it had faced a dilemma of not increasing the wages at all, due to the drought and water shortage.
Chairperson of Agri SA’s labour and social committee, Hendrik Ackermann, said the organisation recognised the need for workers’ wages to keep pace with rising food prices and cost of living, but realised that, due to the drought, there would be farmers who could not afford the wage increase.
The owner of Kwepperfontein farm, who did not want to be named, said in spite of the negative impact of the drought on production, the farmworkers deserved the increase.
“In October management staff did not have their salaries increased because there was no money. It is a struggle, but there are real people involved who have families to feed. Farmworkers deserve the increase,” he said.
The farm owner said that during peak season he paid out an average of about R60 000 in wages. “It all depends on how many hours a farmworker works and how much the basket weighs with fruit they have picked,” he said.
The farm owner also hoped to, over the next three years, refurbish 10 dwellings on his farm wherein about 30 farmworkers lived. Last year he managed to refurbish five.
francesca.villette@inl.co.za
@FrancescaJaneV
Cape Times