Scholarly literature on Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) view small scale businesses as
employment generators, skills developers, and therefore, contributors to economic growth and poverty reduction.
While this notion dominates scholarship and policy circles, it ignores other issues that are inherent in managementlabour
relations in SMMEs. This study explores the vulnerability of workers in small businesses. It examines the
factors contributing to workers exploitation, the extent of workers vulnerability to exploitation and workers
awareness of their rights in their workplaces. It focuses on employees of small businesses in Stutterheim, a small
town in Amatole District in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative
methods to collect empirical data. Research findings reveal that workers in the study area are vulnerable to
exploitation occasioned by high rate of poverty, scarcity of jobs, low levels of worker education, workers’
unawareness of their rights, and official indifference to labour practices