Plantation workers and wages

The topic of paying a daily minimum wage of Rs. 1,000 to plantation workers has been in the air for several years. I attended a well-organised so called ‘stakeholders meeting’ of a Regional Plantation Company (RPC) last month in Dickoya, Hatton, by virtue of my being a District Manager of a development organisation.  Under an agreement with the RPC, our organization has been implementing a few community welfare projects – including three Gravity-fed water supply schemes – in three of its tea plantations.

The meeting was attended by about 50 participants, representing 15 of government and non-governmental organizations.  The event was a seminar consisting of several informative presentations on various aspects – such as productivity, healthcare and the education – on the plantation sector, and was an eye opener for many.  The RPC also shared data and information on its plantations, and the projects it did to improve the lives of people therein.  The open forum resulted in highly informative and enlightening details, answering the queries raised over subjects being discussed.

At one point, said the RPC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), “Unlike decades ago, we now do not see our workers as a liability, but consider them as an asset.  Because, without them neither the company nor we can survive.  The worker population in our estates is our life line, but it has decreased by over fifty percent – from 20,000 to a mere 8,000 – within the last 10 years, as the youth migrated to the city for better-paid employment.  It is the same with most RPCs, and it reduces the plantation size and production.  We are aware of these challenges and want to raise the wage to one thousand rupees, but productivity is the issue.  Unless each worker plucked 18 kilos of leaves a day, instead of 10 to 15 kilos as at now, paying a thousand rupees is not feasible.  To pluck that much of leaves a worker has to make 10,000 hand movements, but most of the workforce can’t do so as they are anaemic or with other ailments.  Making them healthy is the key for raising productivity, which in turn will improve the company’s balance sheet and the country’s economy”.

The appeal of the CEO was to the organizations present to uplift the health and wellbeing of the estate population.  And the company pledged its fullest support in such endeavours.  In fact, it has committed to contribute in kind and labour substantially to the efforts.

The discussions ensued pointed at Trade Unions as the key actor that misled the worker population against the estate management, with misinformation and impractical demands, like the one thousand rupee wage.  Many were of the view that such manoeuvres, by unions, if succeeded, would not help in production increase but fast destroy the already ailing tea industry.  That would endanger the employment of all estate workers, it was said.

Nationally the issue of wage increase is not yet over as there was no tripartite consensus reached among the Government, RPCs and the worker population represented by Trade Unions in plantations. 

It is like a simmering volcano that would explode anytime, killing the million-dollar foreign exchange earner-industry.  Onus is on the government to act fast, but without any political clout.  It should get the actors concerned – RPCs and the Trade Unions – into the negotiation table again, lead discussion impartially, and find a win-win solution.

 TILAK W. KARUNARATNE

Monaragala