For some years now, celebrating Workers Day was for all other sectors, but not for agriculture industry workers.
BY PHILLIP K MAFUNDU
We have been battered left right and centre.
It’s actually painful to think that there are workers out there celebrating this day while we suffering.
Working in the agriculture industry in Zimbabwe is not by choice, it’s a way of survival, and there is nothing good to emulate or enjoy starting from the accommodation given, the working conditions, to the salary at the end of the month.
It is modern day slavery on the farms.
We have said it and instead get accused of causing disharmony in the Industry, accused of discouraging workers not to go to work, they already do not want to be slaves, this is not work its slavery, maybe we have to find a better word because this is worse than slavery. At least slaves used to get food.
The United Nations recently reported that Zimbabwe a faces a serious food crisis.
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But surely for a country that used to be bread basket of Africa?
What’s really happening? You cannot tell me it is because of the land reform programme of year 2000.
If all the farms were taken subdivided into small pieces and given to black indigenous farmers, it could be better.
The truth of the matter is those small indigenous farmers who are farming are at least treating their workers better than the much praised commercial farmers (white and black).
At least our brothers and sisters have Ubuntu and are not imperial capitalists like commercial farmers.
The problem is that the capitalist has captured the legislator, who by the way is a farmer also and of capitalist nature.
So reporting abuse of labour on farms to our leaders now seems like reporting it to the abuser, the results of which are similar to flogging a dead horse.
The abuse is what will continue and worsen instead.
Under such circumstances the nation should not expect the food crisis to end, not any time soon anyway.
Until and unless the political leaders address the recurring abuses and exploits happening in farms, Workers Day celebrations will continue to be a sore thumb for the farm worker.
The composition of the National Employment Council (NEC) in Agriculture Industry is 10 representatives from the workers and another 10 from employers.
These are grown-ups, who sat and deliberated for a while, came out of the meeting and said we agreed that $550 was reasonable for a farm worker.
The level of capture is disgusting to say the least.
These are employees who wake up at 5am, work throughout the day.
Any hour or minute missed is deducted from the already paltry salary and any complaints could result in the worker getting fired without any benefits.
Those who remember very well we raised this issue in 2017 and authorities at the NEC and Ministry of Labour asked us to classify the case and obviously it’s “overtime”, then this is what they had to say, “Any overtime claim should be accompanied by adequate evidence and details of dates, time worked, request and authorisation of the overtime.
“The claimants did not provide such sufficient information to justify the claim.
“The respondent on the other hand submitted time books, records that showed that employees were either paid the overtime or given time off in lieu of overtime, it is, therefore, my finding that the claim for overtime be dismissed”.
To my learned colleges I know you understand such language and knowing well that the said claimants worked overtime and because it wasn’t recorded neither requested or authorised, it was forced, there is no record whatsoever, if any there is a cover up record and given the circumstances there is nothing I can do as an employees representative.
Even if the employee comes up with a proper record of when, where and how he/she did the overtime, we still have a challenge on request and authorisation and furthermore the Labour Act Chapter 28:01 stipulates that the custodian of employment records is the employer.
In Manicaland province, one prominent tobacco farmer had a lawsuit against me and the union claiming large sums of money allegedly for disturbing production in 2018.
We had to write to a number of stakeholders and interested parties about the abuses that were happening on a number of farms he was renting.
It was about six farms employing more than 3000 employees and all of them purportedly failed to finish their daily tasks in eight hours that they had to work for 12 or more hours every day so as to finish daily tasks.
Some who did not finish the tasks had to continue the following day with one day being marked and paid.
Others had to work on Sundays or during their off days to cover up for the unfinished daily tasks.
Please be reminded that our agricultural sector statutory instrument 116 of 2014 allows employers to give task work on condition that it will be finished during the stipulated eight working hours, failure of which the extra hours will be calculated and paid as overtime.
We wrote to the following organisations as interested stakeholders
1. National Employment Council for the Agricultural Industry
2. Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare
3. Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (Where the farmer is a member)
4. Tobacco Industry Marketing Board
5. Tianze (A Chinese tobacco company where the farmer is contracted).
6. Commercial Farmers Union
7. Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission
All organisations above tried by all means to evade our call and outcry about this and instead pushed blame to another organisation as the responsible authority.
We eventually decided to take the court route and as I mentioned before we got the same reply from the responsible designated agent at the NEC that: “Any overtime claim should be accompanied by adequate evidence and details of dates, time worked, request and authorisation of the overtime.
“The claimants did not provide such sufficient information to justify the claim.
“The respondent on the other hand submitted time books, records that showed that employees were either paid the overtime or given time off in lieu of overtime, it is therefore my finding that the claim for overtime be dismissed.”
On behalf of agricultural workers, the Progressive Agriculture and Allied Industries Workers Union of Zimbabwe (PAAWUZ and its members my appeal to whoever out there, as responsible citizenry of our beloved Zimbabwe, is that our kith and kin working in the plantations, the farms, the green houses, those that are making it possible for us eat, drink and be merry every day, must be also treated like humans trying to earn a living.
We are not asking for much. We just want a to live normal lives like real human beings.
We eat, dress, send kids to school, cover medical expenses and save a little for unforeseen expenses.
Please bear in mind that it is our constitutional right to withdraw our labour if the circumstances are like this, but we are appealing for understanding because we believe in such a world where chaos is not the best solution.
If this persists we will be forced to down tools and protest.
As we have said before and cried out loud, it is only in the Zimbabwe agricultural industry that protective equipment is deemed not necessary for one to work on the farms.
We have raised this issue several times before and in particular certain farm workers eventually refused to go to work for about 76 days demanding that they be given protective clothing.
The employer on the other hand argued that there was no law that compelled him to provide protective clothing for his employees.
The workers were all fired and authorities blamed me saying I should have advised the workers that what they were claiming was not backed by any legislation; talk about unfair dismissal, the matter was subsequently taken to court.
Imagine we have the whole National Social Security Authority Act, NEC Agriculture SI 116 of 2014 and the Labour Act Chapter 28:01, all grown up professionals sat down deliberated and agreed to all these acts leaving out the issue of protective clothing. SI 323 of 1990, which was replaced by SI 116 of 2014 that clearly stipulated that an employer should provide protective clothing twice every year.
The current councillors both those representing employers and those purporting to represent employees agreed to remove such an important clause in the statutory instrument, one wonders for whose interest, the worker?
Now with Covid-19 in the picture, the sector was declared an essential service and workers have been going to work all along without any protection or even knowledge how one can protect themselves from contacting the virus.
We said it clearly that the farmers were not ready and prepared to make their work places safe for work but that fell on deaf ears.
All that we care about is enough grain in our silos, enough horticultural produce on the markets the so-called golden leaf so that the country can have a lot of foreign currency.
The tobacco auction floors opened this week and all I could hear from the authorities was how the auction floors are safe, how auction floor workers, sellers and buyers are safe and protected from the exposure of the virus, no one bothered to ask where the tobacco is coming from, those who reaped it, graded it, packed it in those bales, are they safe.
That person is not protected. No one cares about his/her welfare. All we need is the product they produce as if they are machines.
No one hears their voice no matter how loud they cry.
Now that the farmers are going to be paid half their money for tobacco in foreign currency, we want half of our salaries in foreign currency as well.
The agriculture industry in Zimbabwe it’s still the only sector where one can work for more than 10 years as a casual worker, get fired and go home without anything.
Like I said earlier, working on Zimbabwe farms it’s not by choice, it’s not a job, it’s just a means of survival and its slavery.
Now that many have seen their former workmates getting fired and leaving without anything, they have become helpless and subjected to abuse.
The main challenge is that even if it’s reported, the courts will take forever to resolve the cases and at the end of the day, the worker is the one, who suffers the most.
There is a statutory instrument that says that one should work for four and half years on a fixed contract before becoming a permanent employee.
Even though this s doesn’t make sense, the employers don’t follow it.
Workers still work for more years and never become permanent.
Intimidation and victimisation is very rampant in the agricultural industry and almost every employer in the sector does not treat an employee as an equal human being.
Workers are treated with much contempt and disrespect and as if they are animals.
Sometimes animals are treated better than agriculture industry workers because at least an owner of an ox, dog or horse knows its limits and feeds the animals regularly, but this doesn’t happen to a human being we call a farm worker.
The $550 being given to these workers is also a tool for intimidation and victimisation.
Everyone knows that there is nothing you can do with that amount.
You can’t even buy two full chickens that you are rearing as part of your job for that matter.
To sanitise the abuse, employers have come up with what is now being called a food hamper.
The “food hamper” is not covered by any legislation and is given by the employer in their own discretion.
The employer can choose who to give and who not to give. If you complain too much, you don’t get the hamper.
If you demand your rights, you don’t get it. At one farm they were asked to choose between “food hampers” and personal protective equipment.
As bona fide workers in the vital agriculture industry, we appeal to the authorities and public at large to hear our cries.
We want better working conditions and a living wage
This is a humble appeal since the situation is now dire for us, but we will not hesitate to exercise our constitutional rights if the situation persists
*Phillip K Mafundu is the national organising secretary for PAAWUZ. You can contact him on philmafu@gmail.com for feedback
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