SUBMISSION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON LABOUR AFFAIRS ON THE BASIC CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT BILL

Firstly the SAAU wants to state it's disappointment that after more than a year's intensive negotiations between the three social partners no acceptable degree of consensus has been reached. We attach much value to the negotiating process in Nedlac because we believe that this is the place where the differences should be settled. We can only trust that in future real and sustainable results will be achieved during the negotiating stage which can be implemented in practice.

We also want to put on record our appreciation for the transitional arrangements which will allow the agricultural sector to keep working hours at 48 per week for a period of twelve months after the implementation of the Act. We trust that before the expiry of the twelve months a set of basic conditions of employment suitable for the agricultural sector will be agreed upon between the various parties.

Of overall concern to us is the shorter working time which is being dealt with in detail by Business South Africa. As applied to farm workers it boils down to 23 days less work per year which is a full month of working days. We calculate the reduced number of working days as follows:
* Weekly hours reduced by ± 6% (from 48 down to 45): The equivalent of 13 days per year.
* 7 days additional annual leave
* 3 days family responsibility leave
In total therefor 23 days.

Together with a much reduced work year higher overtime rates and additional pay for night work, labour cost in agriculture (already the highest cost item in the sector at R4,6 billion per year) will increase sharply thereby contributing to food inflation which normally hits the poorer part of the population the hardest.

While we are fully supporting the submission by Business South Africa we do wish to bring to the attention of the committee a few issues of particular concern to the agricultural sector.

A phenomenon that we have to deal with in agriculture is the influence of seasons and weather patterns on agricultural production. This has a profound impact on the demand for labour on a seasonal base but sometimes also on a very short notice. Members of the committee will recall that during a visit to an apple farm earlier this year one of the workers came up with the wisdom that in farming it is nature who makes decisions not management. There is much truth in the sense that the best planned working schedules can be overthrown by nature for instance unseasonal hot weather can cause the fruits of the land to ripen much quicker requiring them to be harvested earlier. Likewise cooler weather could have the opposite effect. It is also one big truth about agricultural production that it is a biological process which cannot be switched on or off depending on the availability of labour. If a cow must be milked today the work cannot stand over for a day or a week and if the tamatoes on the land are ready for picking today a great portion of it will go to waste if it is only picked next week.

Up to now the agricultural sector was able to deal with these problems because there was a good degree of flexibility within the labour arrangements. The Agricultural Labour Act for instance adapted the working hours arrangement in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act as applied to agriculture to enable employers and workers to agree on an extension of working hours (from 48 to 56 per week) for a period not exceeding four months a year provided that during the off seasons the number of working hours per week be reduced in a similar fashion so as to end up with an average not exceeding 48 hours per week over the course of one year. This also provided room for protecting the workers against extremes in temperature : for instance a much shorter day in winter in the extremely cold areas and a midday rest period in the extremely hot areas. The arrangements for work on Sunday were also flexible enough for instance to enable dairy farmers to make sure that the cows are milked seven days a week and that the animals are properly cared for.

These provisions have now disappeared from this Bill and we want to raise three particular issues which will make it very difficult and more costly to manage labour on farms. These issues are -

1. Clause 17 Night work -
Although very little work is done on the farm during the night, in other words continuing past midnight into the early morning of the next day, it does happen frequently that work is continued until after 18h00. In other cases, for instances on dairy farms the day's work may start before 6 o'clock. The result of the later than 18h00 and earlier than 6h00 work is normally that the worker will have more time during the course of the day to spend at his home which is normally situated within easy walking distance from his place of work. It seems unfair and unnecessarily adding to the cost if a worker goes into the defined night work period by an hour or two or start an hour or two earlier and the employer is then compelled to comply with the provisions of clause 17.

Proposal : That night work arrangement as applied to farm workers be redefined (Clause 17(3)) to read "...after 20:00 and before 04:00.

2. In order to cope with the seasonal demand for labour, the fluctuation arrangement which we have already referred to above is working well because although the hours of work may fluctuate seasonally, the wage of the worker remained the same whether he exceeds the 48 hours or whether he works less than 48 hours. It also provides for arrangements to protect workers against working in extreme temperatures If this flexibility arrangement is not available in future the only way the farmers can manage the seasonal demand in labour is to pay the workers per hour worked. This will have the result that during the high demand period for labour the smaller core of permanent workers will be restricted to 45 hours and additional seasonal workers will be hired. During the off season period where workers may work as little as 40 or 35 hours per week their weekly wage will be reduced because of the shorter hours worked. This is an undesirable state of affairs. The farmer would prefer to pay a constant wage which will help him in planning his cash flow more accurately and at the same time it is beneficial to the worker to have certainty that his wage will be the same from week to week or from month to month irrespective of the length of his working week. We therefore sincerely trust that a practical arrangement can be reached so that working hours can fluctuate around 45 hours to cope with seasonal demand but at the same time keeping the wage at a constant level calculated at 45 hours per week.

Proposal: That the present flexible arrangement as set out above be retained in the Act (An earlier draft of the Bill actually provided for such an arrangement.)

3. Section 12 - Averaging of hours of work -
Section 12(1) provides for averaging of work hours up to four months in terms of a collective agreement. The word definition of a collective agreement however requires the workers to be represented by a registered trade union. It is a well known fact that the agricultural sector is together with domestic worker sector the two sectors that are still very unorganised and it is unlikely that the position will change markedly in the foreseeable future. To disallow workers in these sectors coming to an arrangement with employers to average working hours over a period is detrimental to both workers and employers.
In the continuous operations farming subsectors, for instance dairies, feedlots and broiler chickens, it is imperative that labour be available for seven days a week. Up to now this could be reached by shift arrangements which normally caused a particular worker to work longer hours in a certain week but shorter hours in the following week so as to average over the two weeks the prescribed maximum hours of work. This was done by way of agreement between the employer individually with his workers collectively. Although this sort of fluctuation is not of a seasonal nature it is merely practical arrangements to ensure that labour is available for seven days a week. The same principal however applies and that is that if the wage is calculated by the hour the weekly wage will fluctuate from week to week depending on the number of hours worked.

Once again this is an undesirable state of affairs which will cause difficulties for both the farmer and his workers. We plead with the committee to understand these practical problems and propose an arrangement in terms whereof these issues can be dealt with.

Proposal: That the Act provides for an averaging arrangement over a period of four weeks between the employer individually and his workers collectively.