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Fin24 user Markham Adams questions the concept of 'institutionalised slavery' in a modern age.
Responding to a call to add your voice to the big labour debate, Adams writes:
Dear Terry
In your verdict, of farmers not being able to afford wages of R150 (for probably 10-12hrs) of work, are you suggesting that the farm workers community and this country can continue to afford 'institutionalised slavery' in this modern age, at the behest of an old Colonial privileged farmers' lifestyle?
Terry Bell responds:
I am not suggesting anything of the sort, Markham. What I illustrated was the conclusion in the report that a "stalemate" existed between what workers need and farmers, by and large, can afford; that both are trapped within the system.
It is also a system, as the report also makes clear, in which there is inadequate housing for workers and their families in a situation where rural unemployment has seen fairly massive migration to rural towns.
One could argue that an aspect of institutionalised slavery existed - and still exists - in the wage determination made by the government with the agreement of Cosatu.
The R60 a day rebellion of 2012 was against a state decreed minimum daily wage. If we are to persist with a system of employers and employees — so far, there seems no alternative on the horizon — then the system needs to ensure decent wages and conditions for workers and a profit margin for employers.
I suggest you read the Visser and Ferrer report to understand the complexities of the issue.
* Add your voice or just drop Terry a labour question. Follow Terry on twitter @telbelsa.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on Fin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
