Estate workers get wage hike

Workers to get Rs. 405 daily :

Rasika Somarathna

A majority of the Plantation Trade Unions yesterday decided to suspend their involvement in the ongoing protest campaign as the estate owners agreed to increase the daily wage of the workers to Rs. 405.

According to a breakdown of the proposed daily wage, a worker is set to receive Rs. 290 as his basic salary, Rs. 85 as an attendance allowance and a minimum of Rs. 30 as a price share bonus. Earlier a plantation labourer’s total daily wage was Rs. 290.

An agreement to this effect is to be signed between trade unions and the Employers’ Federation, according to Plantation Industries Minister D. M. Jayaratne.

He said the go-slow campaign launched by estate workers, demanding a wage hike had cost the national economy over Rs. 800 million so far. “The toll would be higher when a proper estimate is made on the damage caused to the crops and the tea produce,” he added.

He also identified the margin of increase (nearly 40 percent) as on par with the expectations of both sides. The estate unions earlier demanded a daily wage of Rs. 500.

Meanwhile, it was reported that a few trade unions were not happy with the proposed structure and were urging their membership to continue with the protest campaign demanding that the daily wage be increased to Rs. 500.

Our Nuwara Eliya Group Correspondent P. Rajaratnam said the Upcountry Workers Front, Workers Liberation Front and Ceylon Workers’ Alliance had organized protest campaigns rejecting the Rs. 405 offer.

Transport of teas to Colombo from many factories had stopped. In some areas, estate superintendents and their families have left their bungalows citing security reasons, he added.

Meanwhile, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) President and Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Deputy Minister, M. Sivalingam said although all groups had agreed to the wage hike a communication gap had led to a few trade unions resorting to their agitation campaign.

He was of the opinion that an overwhelming majority of estate workers were in agreement with the proposed changes.

“The few dissenting voices who are being misled with wrong information too would fall in line shortly,” he added.

Meanwhile, CWC Assistant Secretary and Kandy District Chairman M.S. Sellamuttu said this kind of unpleasant situation could have been avoided if both the trade unions and plantation owners have a better dialogue and would enact salary changes in time.

While accusing some unions of taking undue advantage of the situation, he added that although the workers had demanded a hike of Rs. 500 their intention was to go beyond the Rs. 400 mark.

He was also of the opinion that it would take some time for estates to clear the backlog and recover from the heavy losses incurred due to the protest campaign.

According to him estate workers in the Kandy and Pussellawa areas had rejoiced after hearing the news of their wage increase by lighting fire crackers.

The trade unions agitation campaign had continued for almost two weeks, demanding a wage increase of Rs. 500 per day.

The last biennial Collective Agreement that offered a wage increase of Rs. 290 expired on March 31, 2009 and negotiations between the unions and the plantation companies started from the middle of this year.