Fourteen farm and seasonal workers want the use of emolument attachment orders declared unconstitutional. These type of orders are granted by a magistrate's court to force an employer to hand over part of a worker's salary directly to the creditor.

A group of indebted farm workers are taking microlenders to court in a bid to stop them attaching their salaries, according to Sunday's Rapport newspaper.

Fourteen farm and seasonal workers want the use of emolument attachment orders declared unconstitutional. These type of orders are granted by a magistrate's court to force an employer to hand over part of a worker's salary directly to the creditor.

In papers before the court, it is alleged the respondents: 13 microlenders and their lawyers, Flemix & Associates, forged signatures on documents and got attachment orders in courts hundreds of kilometres from where the loans were granted.

The respondents have until December 15 to file answering papers.

The applicants want the court to order a change to the law governing emolument attachment orders, and a change to the National Credit Act.

They argue that having their salaries attached infringes on their right to property, as a salary is a form of property.

In one case cited in the court papers, Stellenbosch gardener Vusumuzi Xekethwana, 38, is paying 60 percent interest on a R4600 debt.

A cleaner, Lisinda Bailey, 39, has nearly half her R4800 salary attached every month to pay off a R13,000 debt.