Women farm workers in South Africa
Country: South Africa |   Partner: Sikhula Sonke
Aims
- To improve the position of women farm workers through collective campaigns, effective negotiations and relationships with employers’ organisations and government structures.
- To expand the membership of Sikhula Sonke annually and to be representative of seasonal workers and the diversity of workers within the agricultural sector.
- To build strong leadership structures, based on democratic principles, within Sikhula Sonke at national and branch level.
Successes
- Sikhula Sonke continues to be the only union for women farm workers in South Africa and as a result of their training approximately 2,500 women farm workers are aware of their rights and empowered to defend them.
- Sikhula Sonke has successfully fought for the minimum wage to be enforced and increased as well as permanent contracts, medical benefits, travel subsidies, maternity pay, toilets in vineyards, crèches and protective clothing for its members. In 2009, after a long struggle, 1 million farm workers benefitted from a 13% increase to the minimum wage.
- Last year alone Sikhula Sonke secured 28 collective bargaining agreements on farms bringing improvements to the working and living conditions of 885 poor farm workers, including permanent and seasonal workers.
- Sikhula Sonke has successfully campaigned against the eviction of farm workers and gender-based violence.
The facts
- The economic pressures of liberalisation have forced farm owners to cut labour or turn permanent workers into casual labour, and it is generally women who are the first to go.
- Women farm workers face harsher treatment and conditions whilst earning only 78% of what their male counterparts earn.
- Without a union to fight for their rights, some farm workers do not received the minimum wages they are legally entitled to.
- The new minimum wage legislation does not provide enough income for households to compensate for increasing food prices.
Over one million people work in the agricultural sector in South Africa. Farm workers contribute millions to South Africa's economy, with products that are sold in British supermarkets, yet they are among the lowest wage earners in the country. This wealth created by a diverse agricultural sector fails to trickle down to the vast majority of farm workers who face unsecure employment, unfair wages, poor housing, unsafe working conditions and a lack of access to benefits such as sick pay and maternity leave.
Sikhula Sonke, which means 'we grow together' in Xhosa (one of South Africa 11 official languages), is a women-led trade union which fight for farm workers rights in the Western Cape and deal with issues as diverse as labour rights, domestic violence, food insecurity and alcohol abuse.
The environment in which Sikhula Sonke operates is very challenging. Â Despite the legalisation of trade unions for farm workers, the level of trade unionisation among farm workers is still unacceptably low (less than 5%), leaving workers vulnerable to exploitation. For women workers, the challenges are particularly harsh. Making up the majority of seasonal and casual workers in the sector, women remain largely unrepresented in most unions in the absence of specific strategies to support the majority of temporary/seasonal workers they represent. Women are therefore also almost completely absent in the leadership of these unions and the issues that particularly affect them as women are largely neglected.
Sikhula Sonke’s overall goal is, trough building up women leadership, not only to challenge the unfair labour practices experienced by women farm workers, but will also more broadly address the social and economic development needs of women who live and work on farms.
With War on Want's long standing support, Sikhula Sonke membership is growing, reaching out further vulnerable farm workers. Sikhula Sonke is also successfully strengthening women farm workers’ skills, capacity and confidence to lead and represent their members in a democratic and accountable way. This has resulted in winning negotiation for wage increases, secure employment, paid maternity leave, medical benefits and improved health and safety standards for their members. A special focus is given to promoting gender equality and provide additional support to members on gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS issues with the collaboration with other organisations.
» Find out more about their activities in support of female farmers in South Africa
