COSATU no letters, white background.jpg 11 May 2016 COSATU Deputy General Secretary Cde Solly Phetoe to join visit to workers at Umbhaba Farm COSATU leadership will join the government delegation visiting the three thousand (3000) dismissed farm workers at Umbhaba Farm in Mpumalanga tomorrow. The Congress of South African Trade Unions leadership will form part of the delegation that will be visiting the more than three thousand (3000) dismissed farm workers at Umbhaba Farm in Mpumalanga. These workers were summarily dismissed, six months ago, by the Umbhaba farm management, when they went on strike demanding that they be allowed to join a union of their choice. The federation has been mobilising workers and all stakeholders in Mpumalanga and all across the country to ensure that these workers are reinstated. COSATU Deputy General Secretary, Cde Solly Phetoe will join the Director General of the Department of Labour and the representatives from the CCMA and the Department of Agriculture tomorrow on the 12th May 2016 to meet these poor farm workers. These workers have been denied their right to earn an income and take care of their families for the past six months by the intransigent Umbhaba Farm management. Their case and plight is not just an isolated incident, but it reflects the untransformed state of the farming sector and vulnerable and precarious state that farm workers find themselves in, all across the country. Farm workers are dismissed arbitrary without the employers following proper disciplinary procedures as set out in our labour laws. They are victims of illegal and of bullying tactics by farmers, who confiscate their livestock and desecrate their graves. The latest inspections by the department of labour and unions on the farms in Mpumalanga have shown that most of these workers live in poorly maintained, sub-standard houses and they lack access to basic services, including water, sanitation and electricity. They continue to have the lowest levels of formal education and training because their do not have access to schools and scholar transport. This means their children are often forced to work on the same farms as their parents to prevent them from being evicted. The health and safety regulations and most of them do not even have access to UIF. Most of them are victims to the most horrific cases of racial, gender and sexual discrimination. They do not enjoy their rights to paid sick, family and annual leave. COSATU has committed itself to liberating these workers from the shackles of racial oppression and economic exploitation. We will be working closely with law enforcement agencies, government departments, CCMA and the Human Rights Commission to tackle the problems facing the farm workers. We do not believe that people who toil hard to feed the nation and also contribute to the economy, should live and work under slavery conditions. It is a travesty of justice that the biggest food producers cannot afford feed their families, because of poor wages they earn. We also challenge consumers and other workers refuse to support products and farming businesses, where workers rights are being undermined. Let us work together to keep farmers accountable. Issued by COSATU Contact: Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, 060 975 6794 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
