Wage increase :
CWC's timely action made it possible
by P. Krishnaswamy
The Sunday Observer conducted an on-the-spot study on reactions of
the plantation workers over the recent wage hike of Rs. 405 to them
under a fresh biennial Collective Agreement signed between three major
plantation trade unions and the plantation companies on September 16,
with special focus on the situation in the estates prior to the
agreement and after.
Negotiations between the three plantation trade unions - the Ceylon
Workers' Congress (CWC), the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers' Union (LJEWU)
and the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre (JPTUC) -and the Planters'
Association of Ceylon, representing 22 regional plantation Companies
came to a deadlock last week after eleven rounds of talks since the
expiry of the last Agreement on March 31, 2009. It was on the initiative
of Plantation Industries Minister D. M. Jayaratna that compromise on a
wage increase of Rs.405 became possible, Ministry sources said.
We visited estates in Watawala, Dickoya, Kotagala and Bogawantalawa
and interviewed workers, both males and females, selected at random,
holding membership in different plantation trade unions.
Some workers in Drayton Etate, Kotagala who were interviewed by the
Sunday Observer appreciated the CWC and its leadership for their
unrelenting efforts to make the plantation companies to agree to a
reasonable wage increase. In the 160 year history of the plantation
industry, the workers' wages were very low and stagnant for many
decades. The CWC with its long trade union history waged continued
struggles to win the socio-economic and political rights of the
plantation workers. The present wage increase also became possible
because of the timely action of the CWC and the non-cooperation campaign
had not caused any financial Straits on the workers, they said. They
were confident that the CWC would do everything necessary in the future
for safeguarding their social and economic welfare and also for getting
them a better wage increase, they said. A majority of the others
interviewed expressed dissatisfaction over the wage increase, explaining
their own reasons. But it was observed all of them returned to work on
September 17, the day following the Agreement, restoring normalcy in the
plantation areas in contrast to the situation on the days prior to the
Agreement which were rocked by a widespread 'non-cooperation campaign',
protest demonstrations and also high tension in some areas including in
Bogawantalawa and Kotagala. A total of 30 female workers, including
pluckers and factory workers, and 24 male workers, in the age group of
20-57, were interviewed in Carolina Estate, Watawala, Shannon Estate,
Hatton, Dickoya Estate, Dickoya, Kottyagalla Estate, Bogwantalawa and
Drayton Estate, Kotagala. A large percentage of them said that the wage
increase of Rs. 405 would only fetch them the basic wage of Rs. 285.
They would only be able to make ends meet if an amount Rs. 400 was paid
as basic wage without any other incentive supplements to their wages.
The basic wage now is 285 while the additional payment of Rs.120 (Rs. 30
for specified norms per day and Rs. 90 for 75 percent attendance ) was
subject to unpracticable conditions and most of them would not qualify
for those payments, they said. Their past experience was that due to
reasons such as sickness of self or a family member, death of a
neighbour, very bad climatic conditions and other social obligations a
virtually all of them never qualified for the attendance bonus, they
said.
Workers of an estate in Watawala said that they got an average of
only two days' work on that estate and on the rest of the days they were
transported to estates in Ginigathene and Dickoya, both about eight km
away, for work. Several previously fertile tea fields were abandoned for
years without manuring and other maintenance for producing 'Organic Tea'
which also did not materialise. The fields, about seventy hectares in
extent, were now covered by overgrowth of jungle trees and bushes with
no prospects of producing tea crops in the future and this has led the
management to send them to other estates to work, they said. Mother of
an infant said she works only on days on which work is offered in the
same estate because of her baby and her take-home pay is nil every month
after deductions on advances she had taken.
According to our interviews among the workers in the five estates,
most families had only two working members and an average of four
dependants, including school-going children and ailing parents. Their
daily expenditure on essential food items is between Rs. 400 - 450 while
expenses on school-going children, including transport, and other
expenses would add to that. Also most of them did not have plots of
lands to cultivate vegetables or facilities to rare milching cows, he
said.
Incidentally it was agonizing to see the sub-human transport
facilities provided to the female workers taken for work in other
estates, standing in packed lorries with gunny bags tied to their waists
and headgears made up of polythene sheets as protection against rain and
jutting branches of tea bushes.
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