The labour department's promise to review the minimum wages for all farmworkers may run over the allocated deadline, the Cape Times reported on Tuesday.
Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant's spokesman Musa Zondi said the review relied on negotiations and could take more than two weeks.
“You can understand where the workers are coming from, but you can't put a timetable on issues where negotiations take place. You know that a lot of things arise from negotiations.”
The department last week published a notice to cancel the current sectoral determination for the agriculture sector, following more than a week of violent protests over wages by workers across the Western Cape.
Table grape harvesters and other workers wanted R150 a day. Most earned between R69 and R75 a day.
The Coalition of Farm Worker Representatives had given the government until December 4 to institute a daily wage of R150 and concede to worker demands, such as improved living conditions.
At the time of the temporary truce, the coalition promised to increase protests “both in scope and militancy”, if the deadline was not met.
Zondi told the newspaper that Oliphant returned from Geneva on Wednesday and would meet the employment conditions commission on Thursday.
The commission would apparently advise the minister on how to go about revising the sectoral determination, Zondi said. Oliphant would then consider representations from interested parties. - Sapa