Wine farm wage deal

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Robertson Winery and the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers' Union last night were finalising a wage increase of possibly 38% for permanent employees.

The agreement was about to be signed at the beginning of the 14th week of the strike.

Last week the union was found to be in contempt of court and fined R50,000 for hate speech after protesters sang, "Dubula Reinette" (Shoot Reinette). They were referring to the company's human resources manager, Reinette Jordaan.

This was in defiance of an interdict against unlawful conduct by strikers.

The Labour Court in Cape Town said the interdict was also breached when strikers tried to intimidate non-strikers.

Union member Mercia Andrew said the current base salary is R3,400 a month. The union had asked for R8,500 but lowered its demand to R4,700.

"We are looking forward to when the workers are back so that we can get our productivity back to normal," said Jordaan.

It is not known what will happen to the temporary workers employed during the strike but Jordaan said "there is a process" with regard to their employment.

Recently Robertson and several other top wine farms in the province came under fire when a documentary, Bitter Grapes, was aired in Europe. It revealed the appalling working conditions on some farms.

The documentary, produced by Danish filmmaker Tom Heinemann, prompted supermarkets in that country to remove South African wines from their shelves.

Scandinavian countries consume about 50 million litres of South African wine annually.

The documentary also led to an investigation by the Department of Labour which found clear evidence that some employees had been poorly treated.

On one farm workers did not have access to clean drinking water. Farmers were given 14 days to remedy the situation.

Source: The Times