South Africa: Working conditions and the contract labour system in timber plantations

 

Since the mid 1980's there has been a global trend towards the outsourcing of labour-intensive aspects of the plantation timber production model. In South Africa, the timber industry has openly admitted that its main motive for replacing permanent employment of workers with contract outsourcing was to cut costs. This has resulted in a number of negative consequences for plantation workers and their families: loss of job security, together with all the normal benefits of direct permanent employment -medical assistance schemes, insurance, pensions, housing, education bursaries, and opportunities for in-house training and career development. This has led to considerable disadvantages and economic losses to worker communities, while timber companies have benefited exponentially.

 

Another reason for the move to contract employment / labour outsourcing was clearly the desire on the timber industry's part to avoid having to deal with any worker union action that could threaten productivity and therefore profitability. Outsourcing jobs under the contract labour system effectively passes responsibility for worker health and safety down to often poorly resourced sub-contractors that cannot afford to provide even basic protective clothing like gloves and face-masks to their workers. The sub-contracting system is usually very poorly monitored by the timber companies, and because main contractors often sub-contract the work to other contractors at a profit, without actually having to get involved in the actual work, it becomes even more difficult to keep track of whether the conditions of contract in terms of things like training, minimum wages and protective clothing are adhered to.

 

Even before this transition took place, considerable effort had already been made by the larger timber companies to eliminate or reduce the use of labour in the field through the use of expensive mechanical technology that could replace hundreds of workers with single machines. Using toxic herbicides to control alien plants and weeds in plantation areas was also a cost-effective alternative to manual weeding methods that had previously provided work for many people. In spite of this the plantation industry has stuck to its dubious claims that timber plantations create new employment and uplift rural communities, although this is clearly far from the truth. It is well known that other agricultural activities, even sugarcane growing, provide employment for many more people than timber plantations do. Most job-losses have been experienced when individually owned and managed mixed farming enterprises are replaced with timber plantations, and this loss of jobs is compounded by the reduction in worker wages and benefits that inevitably results.

 

The prevailing timber plantation model used in South Africa and in many other lesser-developed countries is responsible for a wide range of negative impacts that can contribute to workplace injuries and poor worker health. Harmful impacts often extend beyond the workplace into the homes and communities of workers through linkages that evolved as a part of colonial governance and as an effect of the prevailing corporate 'profit at any price' mentality, where many of the direct costs associated with timber production in plantations are avoided and transferred to worker communities and the environment. The United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO) has rated forest and timber plantation work as being one of the most dangerous, but in combination with the effects of the poor social conditions caused by the contract labour system used in the timber industry, it becomes even more harmful. Without going into great detail, it can be seen that many damaging effects on ecosystems and people are largely hidden from or ignored by society, with government also seemingly unwilling to remove its blinkers.

 

The disruption of community life caused by plantations both through displacement and evictions, and particularly worker migration driven by the contract labour system, is responsible for family breakdown; increased alcoholism, drug use and crime. The proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV AIDS, can be linked directly to the demands placed on workers, especially truck drivers, who must of necessity be away from their homes to find work. Overall, timber plantations perpetuate a cycle of poverty that entrenches poor nutrition, inadequate education, and poor health. Displaced families often end up living in slum shack settlements where they become exposed to disease, crime and the constant threat of losing all their possessions to the fires that frequently raze their insubstantial homes.

 

Women make up a large part of the workforce employed in timber plantations, but their involvement is usually confined to menial physical tasks like weeding, pesticide application, or bark stripping. At the same time these women have to take responsibility for home management, child rearing, and numerous related tasks. In the case of out-grower schemes, especially when the male household head is absent, women must bear the additional burden of responsibility for protecting and managing the woodlot. They often receive little reward as the money from the sale of the wood often goes directly to the man, especially when he is the legal beneficiary of the out-grower agreement with the timber company.

 

The South African timber industry boasts that its (more than 80%) certification by FSC is proof that these industrial timber plantations are responsibly managed in accordance with the FSC principles, criteria and standards for forest management. Why then is there so little tangible evidence to support these claims? Why too are so many of the problems experienced in South Africa also found in other developing countries where large-scale monoculture timber plantations have been established? Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Swaziland, Uganda, India, Indonesia, and Thailand are examples.

 

The answer to these questions should be plain to see, but unfortunately those who control the propaganda machine of the global pulp and paper industry prefer to keep themselves deluded and in denial. It has been said that if a lie is repeated often enough it will eventually be accepted as the truth and even the liar will start to believe it to be true, unless it is persistently challenged by the truth. In this case the plantation certification lie is being challenged by more people across the globe every day.

 

Article based on part of the recent report written for GFC on Agrofuels and certification titled “The Social Impacts of Certified Timber Plantations in South Africa and the Implications Thereof for Agrofuel Crops”.