Yu, DerekMokhathi, Idah Gofaone2026-10-122026-10-122026https://hdl.handle.net/10566/25551The global economy continues to experience a decline in permanent formal sector employment, accompanied by a rise in the casualization of jobs across both the formal and informal sectors. Despite this trend, there is limited research on casual workers labour, particularly within the South African wine tourism industry. This study addressed this gap by investigating casual workers in this industry, with the following research objectives: to examine the personal characteristics of casual workers employed in the wine tourism industry; to assess the employment characteristics of these casual workers; to explore the main challenges faced by these workers to propose policy recommendations to mitigate these challenges. The study adopted a primary data collection approach by administering survey questionnaires to over 200 casual workers across the Western Cape province between February and July 2025 to gather detailed information on their personal experiences. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with more than 20 wine farm managers to gain further insight into the employment characteristics of casual workers from a managerial perspective.The significant ramification of this study is its contribution to identify the challenges faced by the casual workers in this industry, thereby enabling farm owners and policy makers to develop strategies to improve the working conditions, benefits and career trajectory of the casual workers. The empirical findings showed that the wine farm casual workers were predominantly African individuals under the age of 35 years, with Grade 12 (Matric) as their highest educational qualification. Among those with prior work experience, the majority had previously been employed in the wholesale and retail trade or agricultural sector. On average, the workers reported working 40 hours per week, and approximately three quarters had received some form of training, mainly in the areas of customer service and wine-related knowledge. The study further revealed that casual workers earned an average daily wage of R259 while financially supporting two to three dependents. More than half of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their remuneration and the consistency of payments. Despite this, irregular working hours and a lack of job security emerged as the primary challenges faced by casual workers. Nevertheless, nearly two thirds indicated that they would be willing to remain employed on the wine farm if offered a permanent position with sufficiently high remuneration.enLabour marketscasual workerswine tourism industryThesis