Farmworker views on minimum wage to be heard

Cape Town – Input from farmworkers will be taken into account when a decision to implement the national minimum wage or not is made, the Parliamentary Committee on Labour has said.

The chair of the committee, Lumka Yengeni, has assured the people of Ga-Kgapane in Limpopo, where the committee is conducting public hearings, that their views were valuable.

“The committee is here in order to get advice on how the national minimum wage should be implemented in the country,” said Yengeni.

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Following President Jacob Zuma’s call that the viability of a national minimum wage be investigated in the country, the committee has visited seven provinces, soliciting the views of the workers.

Yengeni said the committee hoped to get views from the farming sector, especially since it is the most challenged sector when it comes to wages.

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“The committee is aware that conditions on farms are appalling. And people earned far less than what they should be getting given the number of hours they put in,” said Yengeni.

She said the committee could not go ahead and leave people behind on such an important matter as the national minimum wage.

“We will take into consideration all the input with regards to the kind of minimum wage that will be acceptable to all in the country,” she said.

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