Exploitation of wine and fruit workers exposed
The false argument that South African workers are “over-protected by inflexible labour laws”, which is constantly being repeated by business leaders and commentators, without a shred of evidence to back it up, has been dealt a body-blow by a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the conditions of workers in the Western Cape wine and fruit industries.
The report – “Ripe with Abuse: Human Rights Conditions in South Africa’s Fruit and Wine Industries“, based on more than 260 interviews with farm workers, farm owners, civil society members, industry representatives, government officials, lawyers, union officials, and academic experts – reveals that these workers are certainly not ‘over-protected’ but grossly exploited.