Western Cape – Farmers who threaten that the new minimum wage in the sector will lead to job losses will lose their land, Cosatu said on Monday.

The trade union federation was responding to warnings from Agri-SA and Agri Western Cape that the increased minimum wage for farmworkers would lead to “restructuring”, including mechanisation of labour and decreased demand for unskilled labour.

Western Cape Cosatu secretary Tony Ehrenreich said: “The farmers who make these threats must keep on making these threats. The restructuring will happen and part of that restructuring will lead to them losing their land.

“If they can’t use it then they must lose it. They must go somewhere else. But this is a country now that understands that workers are an essential input, that their interests and their best futures must also be taken into account.”

He said the time for “old baasskap attitudes” was over.