About 200 women marched to the Department of Employment and Labour in Cape Town on Tuesday. They are calling for better practices among labour inspectors when visiting farms and for stronger penalties to be issued to employers who break labour laws.
The marchers, led by the Women on Farms Project WFP, also demanded that the department increase staff and improve access for farmworkers to the Unemployment Insurance Fund UIF.
Denile Samuel, WFPs Labour Rights Programme Coordinator, said theyre aware of several labour rights violations in the Cape Winelands, but their letters to the department have continuously been ignored. She said labour inspectors take months and even years to respond to their letters.
She added that when inspectors do visit farms, they only speak to the farmers and not the affected workers.