Agri EC rails against minimum wage for farm workers

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Agri East Cape says the R105 a day minimum wage for farm workers announced on Monday will have a major impact on Eastern Cape farmers.

Agri East Cape president, Ernest Pringle, says very few sectors of the South Africa have ever been faced with a 50% effective wage increase.

He says how the farming sector will cope with this increase will be problematic.

Pringle says a huge cost increase like will have to be absorbed somehow.

"The sector is going to have to restructure, there's no doubt about it," Pringle said.

"..and, some of our industries which are very labour intensive, for argument sake, citrus, vegetables and deciduous fruit in general, are going to have to restructure themselves considerably to minimise labour costs. I'm not sure how they're gonna do that," he added.

Labour Minister, Mildred Oliphant, said the new rate will come into effect on March 1.

"The new minimum wage... is R105 per day for employees who work nine hours a day, or R11.66 per hour, R525 weekly, or R2274.82 per month."

The new sectoral determination will be promulgated for a three-year period.

Minister Oliphant said during "years two and three" wages will be increased by CPI plus 1.5 percent."