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| Sunday, 25 August 2002 |
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Estate wages : CWC, Employers fed. resume talks by P. Krishnaswamy The Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) will resume talks next week with the Employers' Federation of Ceylon (EFC) on their wage demand for the plantation workers, CWC spokesman R. Yogarajan MP told the 'Sunday Observer'. The last round of talks between the labour unions and the EFC held on July 27 this year stalled following disagreement over the quantum of the wage hike. The estate unions demanded Rs. 151/= per day, an increase of Rs. 30/= on the present daily wage of Rs. 121/=. But the EFC offered a wage of Rs. 142/= per day for the first year and Rs. 146/= for the second year. The CWC, the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers' Union (LJEWU) and the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre (JPTUC) represented the workers at the talks. The CWC subsequently staged a 'non-conforming to law' protest campaign in the estates for a week from July 31. Estate managements described the protest campaign as very destructive. However, the CWC called off the protest campaign following criticism from rival unions which maintained that they will be able to get a wage hike for the estate workers through non-confrontational measures including the intervention of the Government. Meanwhile Plantation Industries Minister, Lakshman Kiriella, has told that he would not intervene to settle this industrial dispute since it was a matter for both the labour unions and the estate managements to negotiate and arrive at a settlement. Up-country People's Front leader and Minister of Community Development, Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, had earlier said that he would seek the intervention of Minister Kiriella for getting a reasonable wage increase to the estate workers. He had also said that relevant papers in the matter had been submitted to the Minister. Mr.Yogarajan said that after two weeks of waiting they would now resume talks with the EFC and the other authorities concerned on their wage demand. |
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