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Johannesburg - The labour department's minimum wage increase of 75 cents per hour for farm workers is still far from meeting workers' demands, Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday.
"This latest increase needs to be seen as just another small step in the march towards an acceptable income for farm workers," Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement.
"This is still far from meeting the farm workers' demand during the 2012 strikes for a minimum wage of R150 per day (R4 562.50 a month), which remains a justifiable target."
The department said on Monday that farm workers would earn an hourly rate of R12.41.
Previously, farm workers earned R11.66 an hour, department spokesperson Page Boikanyo said in a statement.
The weekly rate would increase to R558.60 from R525.
Their monthly salaries had increased to R2 420.41 from R2 274.82.
"The determination sets minimum working hours, minimum wages, number of leave days and termination rules," Boikanyo said at the time.
Craven said a 2013 Employment Conditions Commission report had quoted a study, which the parties to the farm workers dispute commissioned from the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy.
The study stated: "Even at a much higher wage of R150 (a day), large numbers of farm workers' households would not have a sufficient income to meet their basic need", Craven said.
The report stated that for a family of four (two adults, two children) to afford a "balanced daily food plate" providing sufficient energy and dietary diversity they would need a monthly household income of R7 074.
Craven said Cosatu's collective bargaining, organising and campaigns conference in March 2013 had given a clear mandate to campaign for a national minimum wage of a recommended figure of between R4 800 and R6 000.
In November 2012, farm workers in De Doorns, Western Cape, went on strike demanding R150 per day and improved living conditions. Most earned between R69 and R75 a day.
The protests soon spread to 15 other towns, leading to violence and two deaths.
In February 2013 Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant announced the new minimum wage for farm workers of R105 a day.
