Comic contract for fruit pickers receives mark of quality

The ClemenGold® Comic Contract for Fruit Pickers, the first of its kind in the world when it was released early in 2017, has just obtained the much-coveted Better Contract Design Mark from the World Commerce and Contracting Association. This symbol recognises contracts that are specially designed to make business easier for all. Contracts are evaluated on the design, language, and usability employed to make it more user friendly, visually clear and inclusive. The ClemenGold® Comic Contract earned a 5-star rating with its evaluation rating of 96,4%.

ClemenGold® (a global premium mandarin brand) and its fruit producing sister company Indigo Fruit Farming worked with lawyer Robert De Rooy, of Creative Contracts (Pty) Ltd., to develop the world’s first legally binding contract where elaborate words do not trip up contract-illiterate people. The fruit pickers’ contract covers all elements of an employment contract using comics specially created for this purpose and suited to Indigo’s farming environment and its most well-known brand. Feedback from workers and Indigo managers is universally positive, indicating an increased level of transparency and trust.

“We can see that using these contracts create a more equitable employment environment and that our workers are able to commit more fully to the content of a contract as they really understand what they are signing,” says AJ Esser, CEO of Indigo Fruit Farming. Indigo has numerous farms in the South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, as well the Western and Southern Cape. In this contract the parties to the agreement are represented by the characters in the comic, their visualised interaction represents the content of the agreement between them, and the parties to the contract sign the comic to confirm their agreement.

“We encourage other role players in the agricultural industry to consider this approach to their employee relations,” says Esser.

For ore information about the Comic Contract, visit www.creative-contracts.com, or for information about Indigo Fruit Farming and the ClemenGold® mandarin brand, contact Charlene Nieuwoudt at charlene@anbinvestments.co.za