Global production and flexible employment in South African horticulture: Experiences of contract workers in fruit exports

The era of global flexibility has been described as one of generalised precariouness and vulnerability. Global integration is leading to changing patterns of employment, with declining permanent and increasingly insecure forms of work. This trend is typified in the South African export fruit sector. Reintegration into the global economy is leading to both the 'modernisation' and transformation of employment including the rapid rise of off-farm contract labour provided by third party agents. Within the South African fruit sector changes following global integration have been experienced through changes in the global value chain linking the sector to UK and European supermarkets, deregulation of domestic agriculture and export markets and the increase in state legislation affecting employment. These channels have all affected the linkages through which fruit producers access the global economy and are having significant implications for the employment strategies of producers. A dominant trend has been for producers to downsize their permanent on-farm labour and increase the employment of various categories of flexible off-farm labour - especially contract labour. This growing tendency towards the 'externalisation' of farm labour in South African fruit exports has raised new concerns regarding the vulnerability and poverty of farm workers as it means that a growing number of workers are being drawn into global production on the basis of low wages and insecure work outside the bounds of legislative protection. The paper explores the nature of contract employment and the implications of this type of employment for the lives of a group of workers drawn into its ambit. Using a qualitative methodology it examines the experiences of contract workers, not only of their work, but how their employment affects their ability to sustain family and community relations. Although the implications of global integration for contract workers are complex and mixed, our findings suggest an intensification of insecurity and vulnerability to poverty.