Go-slow causes extensive losses to tea companies

The ‘go slow’ campaign launched last Monday by tea estate workers demanding a reasonable wage hike has caused extensive loss to tea companies which have shut down operations.

Estate workers launched trade union action demanding a daily wage of Rs. 1,000 which plantation companies have so far refused to agree to owing to the losses they incur due to the rise in cost of production and the drastic drop in tea and rubber prices.

Secretary General, Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PA), Malin Goonetileke said there were acts of disruption and violence in certain estates. He said tea leaves were dumped in the bungalow of the manager of the Hapugastenne Estate in Ratnapura and items in his sitting room were damaged. “A large number of up and low country factories have been closed,” Goonetileke said. Trade Union officials said they will continue the campaign till the demand is met.

Negotiations have reached a deadlock with both parties refusing to comply. The slow work continued throughout the week forcing manufacturers to shut down factories. The output of an eight-hour work day has been reduced to three to five kilograms of plucked tea as a result of the go-slow campaign. The daily wage of a worker is Rs. 485. The average quantity of tea plucked by a worker per day is 18 kilograms which is low compared to Kenya where it is around 48 kgs and India 38 kgs.

Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) shot down the demand for higher wages for workers by trade unions and proposed a productivity-based wage increase.

At a media briefing last week, PA officials said RPCs cannot fulfill the demand of estate workers given the current drop in tea and rubber prices triggered by the crisis in the Middle East and Russia, the two markets to which Sri Lanka exports a large volume of tea. “We proposed a reasonable wage hike by which a large number of workers will earn much more than what they earn now,” Goonetileke said.He said the cost of production increases by 52 cents a kilo when the wages are increased by one rupee. Our earnings on a kilogram of tea has dropped by Rs. 100 this year. While the wage of a worker was increased several times, prices have gone up only on few occasions. The collective agreement on wage revision is made once in two years. The plantation sector was privatised in 1992 to revive the sector. However the expected pace of growth in profits has not taken place.

-LF