CoL, the main focus:

Three top plantation TUs begin talks tomorrow

by P. Krishnaswamy

Three major plantation trade unions led by the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC), representing the bulk of the workers on tea and rubber estates, begin their first round of negotiations tomorrow, with representatives of the 22 Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) on the biennial Collective Agreement on wage increase for the workers. The last agreement expired on March 31.

The last agreement signed on September 19, 2009, more than five months after the expiry of the previous one, offered a total wage increase of Rs. 405 the basic at Rs. 285 and other components of the increase at Rs. 30 for fixed output norms and Rs. 90 for attendance on a minimum number of days.

The agreement was signed after 11 rounds of unsuccessful negotiations, a series of protest demonstrations and unrest among the workers launched under the patronage of rival unions which were not parties to the negotiations owing to their ‘lower-than-required’ membership strength.

The agreement was signed followed the intervention of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne who was the then Minister of Plantation Industries and the wage increase was given with retrospective effect from April 1, 2009.

CWC President Muthu Sivalingam, the Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs told the Sunday Observer that they will negotiate for a salary increase commensurate with the cost-of-living, which has affected the plantation workers to a great extent, the current increased production levels and the higher prices in the world market for tea and rubber. They will also keep in mind the sustainability of the industry while demanding a wage increase, he said.

Leaders of the other two unions - the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers’ Union (LJEWU) and the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre (JPTUC) who are at the negotiating table together with the CWC also expressed their views. General Secretary of the pro-UNP Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union (LJEWU) S. Velautham said that they would demand an increase in the basic wage and do away with other components of the wage increase that are subject to conditions of productivity norms and attendance.

JPTUC President S. Ramanathan, a General Secretary of the pro-LSSP Lanka Estate Workers’ Union (LEWU) which is one of the 10 constituents of the JPTUC said that according to the clauses in the last agreement the output norm has to be fixed by Estate managements in consultation with Estate level leaders of unions and their ‘Madhar Sangham’, the women’s wing, but this was not observed in several estates where the norm was fixed arbitrarily, depriving the workers of the productivity component of the wage increase. Hence they will call for an increase in the basic wage, he said.