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Hype over farmworker pay unwarranted

Cape Town - The R105 minimal daily wage for farmworkers has not resulted in a massive decrease in jobs, reported BDLive on Friday.

Agricultural employment between March and June dropped 26 000, according to the quarterly labour force survey released on Tuesday.

The drop amounts to a 3.5% decline in agricultural  from a total of 739 000 at the end of March.

"The drop in employment is a very small one given the magnitude of the numbers and the size of the increase in the minimum wage," University of Pretoria economist Frikkie Liebenberg was quoted as saying.

"I don’t think that the hype over the minimum wage was warranted."

Agricultural economist Nick Vink at the University of Stellenbosch said that anecdotal research from the top 10 agricultural industries showed that the magnitude of job cuts would be nowhere near what had been predicted.

Farming towns across the province came to a standstill between November and February this year during a protest by workers against poor wages and harsh living conditions.

De Doorns was the epicentre of the protest action.

The protests led Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to increase the daily minimum wage for farmworkers to R105, after input by farmers and workers.

The new rate, which was R36 more than the minimum wage of R69 a day, took effect from March 1.

An exemption from the new minimum wage was available to farmers who could prove their financial situation was such that they would be forced to shut down operations if their wage bill rose accordingly.

A total of 1 987 farmers sought exemption from the wage determination for farm workers between February and April, Oliphant said in May.

 - Fin24

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