One percent of farmers apply for exemption for new minimum wage

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant says her department has received about 900 applications from farmers, seeking to be exempted from paying their farmworkers the newly agreed-upon minimum wage of R105 per day.

She says she does not foresee massive job losses in the agricultural sector as a result of the new minimum wages.

"Ten percent of those applications have no supportive documents we have sent them back to the employers to say we need more information as per the procedures in terms of processing the exemptions. What should be clear is that this 900 applicants is out of plus minus 100 000 farmers in this country" Oliphant said.