adminThe wages, which have been agreed by the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (Gapwuz) and farmer organisations, fall way short of the living wages.
While we agree that the wages set out the minimum that farmers can pay their workers, we strongly believe the basic wage should have been bettered to be able to cater for the food requirements of the farm workers.
In their current state, the wages are way below the food requirements of not only farm workers but most ordinary people.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency the food Poverty Datum Line (PDL) for a person is US$34,51 a month and that for four or five people is US$172,55, which means the present wages of farm workers can only cater for two people, just for food, and if clothing and looking after the extended family is factored, then it is clear the farm workers are living in abject poverty.
We are convinced that not much was considered in reviewing the farm workers’ wages.
We would have thought that since the indigenous people are now running the farms, the wages must be reflective of the change in the farming landscape.
Land reform has given our people land to carry out agricultural activities and the farms that white commercial farmers occupied are now in the hands of our people.
That being the case, the suppression the farm workers suffered at the hands of white farmers, by way of poor wages and general poor conditions of service, should now be a thing of the past.
Now it is the indigenous people on farms as owners and as workers and what we should be witnessing is the support for each other and not continuation of the oppressive ways.
Gapwuz and farmer organisations should have come up with a living wage that takes into account the farm workers’ requirements on food and clothing.
Indeed the price of cooking oil and washing soap is the same for everyone, whether farm workers or businesspeople.
A minimum wage close to the food PDL for five people (US$172,55 a month) would have been a good starting point.
We, however, want to urge farmers with the capacity to pay the living wages to do so and not to confine themselves to the gazetted wages.
We cannot talk of production on the farms without the workers and it is indeed a fact that a happy and contented workforce is a major factor in production.
Farmers need the workers to help them make money and in return, the workers must be rewarded accordingly.
At times farmers need to put themselves in the shoes of their workers and gauge if they could survive on US$65 a month.
The argument that the workers do not pay for shelter and electricity, for us should not be the reason for low wages.
There should now be a big difference between the colonial white farmer and the real owners of the land in terms of how they treat their workers.
Let the workers be proud of the land reform in that it ushered a new crop of farmers whom they can easily relate to.
Crop production has been rising on the farms, all because of the hard work of the farm workers.
Most farmers have made money from farming and invested in so many things forgetting to invest heavily in their workers by simply paying them reasonable wages.
We applaud those farmers who have been paying their workers more before the new wages.
Nothing should bind farmers to the new wages, where possible they should pay their workers more as the advantages of a happy workforce are well documented.
Online Reporter