Safety Non-compliance on Patato Farm

March 15th, 2010

Bloemfontein. Operations at a potato farm in Bainsvlei, outside Bloemfontein, have been suspended after its workers were found working under unsafe conditions, the Free State labour department said on Friday.

Spokesperson Wisani Mavasa said in a statement that a team of provincial labour inspectors led by Marsha Bronkhorst visited the Saaiman Boerdery farm on Friday.

The team, which included the Mangaung municipality’s Environmental Health unit and the Human Rights Commission, issued prohibition notices on the use of all sorting and packaging machinery at the farm.

The farmer, who employs about 50 workers, was issued with various notices of the contravention of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. These included notices for not providing proper personal protective equipment to all workers and not having a valid certificate of compliance for electrical installations.

The notices were valid until the farmer conducted proper induction training for workers in using the machines.

All the dangerous machines were safeguarded as per the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Bronkhorst said: “We are not going to allow situations where an employer puts his profit before the well-being of the workers.”

“In this case it is obvious that the employer has not even tried to put anything in place in the interest of his workers’ health and safety,” she said.

“As the department of labour, we have to demonstrate strong intolerance of each and every employer who refuses to obey the law,” said Bronkhorst.

The labour team also found that the farmer has disregarded the Basic Conditions of the Employment Act’s Sectoral Determination for Farm Workers and was paying his workers salaries less than that stipulated in the legislation.

There were no contracts of employment and copies of pay slips or any other records available at the farm business.

Farm workers also did not have proper sleeping and ablution facilities, and food provided to them “was not of an acceptable standard”.

The farmer was ordered to comply with the legislation within 21 days or face the full might of the law.

Source: Sapa