The Department of Labour has sent a stern warning to farmers who do not ensure the safety of their workers.
This violates the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the environmental regulation for workplaces. Following the International Labour Organisation’s commemoration of the World Day for Health and Safety, earlier this year, the Department started giving seminars in the agricultural sector, to promote health and safety in the workplace.
Last year, seven farmworkers died of heatstroke in the Kakamas area in the Northern Cape, with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius in the region. The Department of Labour says farmworkers work long hours in extreme weather conditions.
Chief Inspector at the Labour Department, Milly Ruiters, “In the agricultural sector, you find that workers work for extended hours in extreme weather conditions, like for instance, heat. It can also be stress factors in the extreme cold in winter. So, what is important for an employer, which in this case is the farmer, is to make sure when the workers are exposed to extreme weather, they put control measures in place.”
Some farm owners in the province, say they have put measures in place to ensure the safety of farmworkers.
“In times of heat they start work at 5am until 10am and stop and work again at 4pm. PPE, I have already bought it for that person, wearing safety boots and nice caps. So, we make sure that they come early until 12 pm. They come back and do anything around the farm where they can rest under the trees or work in the storerooms,” says a farm owner.
