Social dialogue:
Collective agreements in agriculture

An analysis of 23 recent collective bargaining agreements in agriculture from Africa revealed the importance of such agreements to ensure basic rights in the workplace as well as the setting out of procedures to ensure stable labour relations. All agreements included sections on wages, overtime and severance pay, occupational safety and health, and funeral costs and facilities. The latter section may be one indicator of the impact that HIV/AIDS is having on the agricultural workforce in Africa and the efforts of employers and workers to deal with the consequences of the disease in a humane manner. Twenty-two of the 23 agreements included sections on allowances (e.g. housing allowance), leave (e.g. annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave and compassionate leave) and medical care. Twenty-one agreements contained provisions related to the handling of conflict (e.g., warnings and termination of employment) and leave to attend to union business. Approximately three-quarters of the agreements contained clauses regarding the employment status of the worker (permanent, seasonal or casual), which demonstrates the importance of this questions for workers’ well-being, and a number set out a probationary period, time frame or process through which workers could move from less stable to more regular employment, for example, from seasonal to permanent status. Seventeen agreements contained provisions related to education, whether of workers themselves or of their children, and 18 included provisions related to incentives.