Decent work in global production networks: a study of Eswatini’s sugarcane outgrower schemes
- Ginindza, Wezizwe Sibusisiwe
- Authors: Ginindza, Wezizwe Sibusisiwe
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Sugar trade Eswatini , Sugar trade Brazil , Sugar trade Employees , International Labour Organisation , Manpower policy Eswatini , Industrial relations Eswatini , Sex discrimination in employment Eswatini , Eswatini Politics and government , Agricultural laborers Employment Eswatini , Global Production Network (GPN)
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190295 , vital:44981
- Description: Research on Eswatini’s sugar industry has expanded rapidly over the past few years, which has provided information on increasing efficiencies under climate change, market competitiveness, and business integration in the industry. Such studies explore opportunities to increase profitability and sustainability in the sugar industry; motivated by low world sugar prices and rising costs of production. However, studies on farmworkers’ conditions of work at the production node of the sugarcane production network are limited. Often, suppliers/producers in the agricultural sector are faced with a dilemma of meeting market demands and maintaining secure work for their employees – but the market and institutional pressures in Eswatini’s sugar industry, because of the country’s participation in the global sugarcane production network, continue to contribute towards decent work deficits on sugarcane farms. This study, being informed by the Global Production Network (GPN) framework, evaluates workers’ conditions in the context of local embeddedness. The GPN framework enables a deeper analysis of the role of labour and the value workers add to the production process. Imperative to this study is to recognise workers’ struggles as they participate in the sugarcane production network as an effective way of locating decent work in Eswatini’s small- and medium-sized sugarcane outgrower farms. Using seven indicators adopted from the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work pillars, this study shows how the specific conditions at the production node of the network (farms) are embedded in a particular historical, institutional, and regulatory context, which included non-firm actors (in particular, Eswatini’s government) who, in combination, shape the dynamics of the sugar industry. The study concluded that decent work deficits include informal and flexible employer-employee relations between farmers and farmworkers; the unfair treatment of women farmworkers on small-scale sugarcane farms; Eswatini’s political climate and its impact on trade union representation on farms; and the effects that climate change has on farmworkers’ conditions of work. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ginindza, Wezizwe Sibusisiwe
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Sugar trade Eswatini , Sugar trade Brazil , Sugar trade Employees , International Labour Organisation , Manpower policy Eswatini , Industrial relations Eswatini , Sex discrimination in employment Eswatini , Eswatini Politics and government , Agricultural laborers Employment Eswatini , Global Production Network (GPN)
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190295 , vital:44981
- Description: Research on Eswatini’s sugar industry has expanded rapidly over the past few years, which has provided information on increasing efficiencies under climate change, market competitiveness, and business integration in the industry. Such studies explore opportunities to increase profitability and sustainability in the sugar industry; motivated by low world sugar prices and rising costs of production. However, studies on farmworkers’ conditions of work at the production node of the sugarcane production network are limited. Often, suppliers/producers in the agricultural sector are faced with a dilemma of meeting market demands and maintaining secure work for their employees – but the market and institutional pressures in Eswatini’s sugar industry, because of the country’s participation in the global sugarcane production network, continue to contribute towards decent work deficits on sugarcane farms. This study, being informed by the Global Production Network (GPN) framework, evaluates workers’ conditions in the context of local embeddedness. The GPN framework enables a deeper analysis of the role of labour and the value workers add to the production process. Imperative to this study is to recognise workers’ struggles as they participate in the sugarcane production network as an effective way of locating decent work in Eswatini’s small- and medium-sized sugarcane outgrower farms. Using seven indicators adopted from the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work pillars, this study shows how the specific conditions at the production node of the network (farms) are embedded in a particular historical, institutional, and regulatory context, which included non-firm actors (in particular, Eswatini’s government) who, in combination, shape the dynamics of the sugar industry. The study concluded that decent work deficits include informal and flexible employer-employee relations between farmers and farmworkers; the unfair treatment of women farmworkers on small-scale sugarcane farms; Eswatini’s political climate and its impact on trade union representation on farms; and the effects that climate change has on farmworkers’ conditions of work. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
- Full Text:
“Willing victims”: a study of Zimbabwean migrant workers in the citrus industry of the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Maisiri, Brandon James
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Migrant agricultural laborers South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Foreign workers, Zimbabwean South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Citrus fruit industry South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Job creation South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Work environment South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Agricultural wages Social aspects South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Marginality, Social South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Migrant agricultural laborers Legal status, laws, etc South Africa , Global Value Chains , International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190657 , vital:45015
- Description: The citrus fruit industry is a large, lucrative industry on the global market. South Africa's citrus fruit industry competes globally and is firmly intergraded into the citrus global value chain (GVC). Sunday River's Valley (SRV) in the Eastern Cape is a powerhouse citrus producer in South Africa. This dissertation interrogates the impact of the citrus value chain on Zimbabwean unskilled immigrant farmworkers in the SRV, positioned at the bottom of the value chain. Mainstream global chain literature, which adopts a neo-liberal approach to development, assumes that businesses in the global south stand to benefit from integrating into global chains. This line of thinking also assumes that, by virtue of the suppliers’ experiencing economic upgrading, farm owners’ employees may experience social upgrading. The idea of social upgrading stems from the International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda, which promotes workers' rights and conditions globally. In the agricultural sector, there is a growing trend of producers (in the global south) employing undocumented immigrant farmworkers. Free market economists perceive these immigrants' employment in the agricultural value chain as a progressive step for immigrants to step out of poverty. This study employs a qualitative research method to analyse social upgrading for immigrant workers in the citrus GVC. This is done by examining the selected workers' working and living conditions against the key pillars of the Decent Work Agenda. Using the critical GVC framework and a Marxist orientation, this study seeks to show that the use of migrant (especially undocumented) labour in the agricultural value chains is not empowering immigrants in the global south but is essentially a strategy of securing cheap and docile labour for profit maximization. While this can be said for local South African workers as well, the migrant workforce is peculiar as their fragile citizenship in South Africa makes them a less resistant labour force to farm owners labour law violations. This study's findings validate this contention, as they show that immigrants employed in the citrus industry in the Eastern Cape are subjected to several Decent Work deficits. The findings also show that these immigrants have no access to mechanisms of empowerment and are barely surviving from their earnings. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
- Full Text:
- Authors: Maisiri, Brandon James
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Migrant agricultural laborers South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Foreign workers, Zimbabwean South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Citrus fruit industry South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Job creation South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Work environment South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Agricultural wages Social aspects South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Marginality, Social South Africa Sundays River (Eastern Cape) , Migrant agricultural laborers Legal status, laws, etc South Africa , Global Value Chains , International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190657 , vital:45015
- Description: The citrus fruit industry is a large, lucrative industry on the global market. South Africa's citrus fruit industry competes globally and is firmly intergraded into the citrus global value chain (GVC). Sunday River's Valley (SRV) in the Eastern Cape is a powerhouse citrus producer in South Africa. This dissertation interrogates the impact of the citrus value chain on Zimbabwean unskilled immigrant farmworkers in the SRV, positioned at the bottom of the value chain. Mainstream global chain literature, which adopts a neo-liberal approach to development, assumes that businesses in the global south stand to benefit from integrating into global chains. This line of thinking also assumes that, by virtue of the suppliers’ experiencing economic upgrading, farm owners’ employees may experience social upgrading. The idea of social upgrading stems from the International Labour Organisation's Decent Work Agenda, which promotes workers' rights and conditions globally. In the agricultural sector, there is a growing trend of producers (in the global south) employing undocumented immigrant farmworkers. Free market economists perceive these immigrants' employment in the agricultural value chain as a progressive step for immigrants to step out of poverty. This study employs a qualitative research method to analyse social upgrading for immigrant workers in the citrus GVC. This is done by examining the selected workers' working and living conditions against the key pillars of the Decent Work Agenda. Using the critical GVC framework and a Marxist orientation, this study seeks to show that the use of migrant (especially undocumented) labour in the agricultural value chains is not empowering immigrants in the global south but is essentially a strategy of securing cheap and docile labour for profit maximization. While this can be said for local South African workers as well, the migrant workforce is peculiar as their fragile citizenship in South Africa makes them a less resistant labour force to farm owners labour law violations. This study's findings validate this contention, as they show that immigrants employed in the citrus industry in the Eastern Cape are subjected to several Decent Work deficits. The findings also show that these immigrants have no access to mechanisms of empowerment and are barely surviving from their earnings. , Thesis (MSocSci) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
- Full Text:
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