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| Sunday, 12 May 2002 |
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Asian Sub-regional meeting in Colombo: Plantation sector session on May 15 Three South Asian Countries, mainly Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka account for 52% of production, 42% of exports and 36% of consumption of tea in the world. The tea industry in the region provides year-round employment for about 2 million workers, mainly women. Yet the South Asian predominance in the tea world is on the decline. At the global level the tea industry is increasingly finding it difficult to meet ends caught between rising costs on one hand and stagnant or declining prices of tea on the other. This problem is more acute in South Asia than in the tea growing regions of East Africa. In all the South Asian countries the plantation sector is poised for major changes under the economic liberalisation. In India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, labour legislation on the plantations is more than 50 years old and much remains to be done in terms of working conditions, collective bargaining rights, particularly for women workers who form the bulk of the workforce. To discuss these issues, the ILO is organising a sub-regional meeting at Galadari Hotel, Colombo from May 15-17. According to Ms. Claudia Coenjaerts, Director ILO Colombo, the focus of the three day meeting will be the practical measures that can be taken to improve working conditions and productivity in the plantation sector through social dialogue. Ms. Coenjaerts also confirmed that two Senior Ministers will address the Inaugural Session, inter-alia, the Minister for Plantations and Industry and the Minister for Housing and Plantation Infrastructure. Mr. Gotabaya Dasanayake, Director General of the Employers Federation of Ceylon and a Senior member from the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union will also speak at the Inaugural Session. Mr. Van der Laan, Director of the ILO Advisory Team for the South Asian Region based in New Delhi, emphasis that productivity improvements are an essential means to raise output despite low prices and to ensure adequate returns. Besides technology, skills and training, productivity itself is dependent on maintaining fair labour standards, improved working conditions, wages, health and nutrition, housing, etc. Increase in productivity is also indispensable to withstand competition from cheap imports. The working and living conditions in the tea plantations in South Asia are a continuing source of concern. The safe use of agrochemicals and the over-crowding and poor infrastructure and housing has been a problem in all the three countries. Primary education for all children on plantations is still far from the norm. Trade unions are also concerned about violations of trade union rights on freedom of association. They have furthermore called for the strengthening of collective bargaining mechanisms which will lead to improvements in working conditions. The trade unions in all the three countries have stated that the problems of the tea plantation workers have been overlooked by both employers and government. Four resource persons will present technical papers during the three day meeting. The resource person from Malaysia will also outline the Malaysian case study where the government investments in water, electricity, health and education and social investment by employers led to rising standard of living in the plantation. Mr. Van der Laan stresses that globalisation has re-emphasised the strategic importance of social dialogue and the importance of taking into account the key stakeholder in the economic and social developments in the plantation sector. He notes that human resource development programmes, in addition to welfare expenditure are important to sustain productivity increases. He calls for training program to upgrade skills of workers and arrangements of adult literacy programmes, especially for women, to make them participate actively in the trade union movement and social dialogue. The workshop will be attended by about 30 participants from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. |
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