Further discussions this week:

Plantation strike called off

by P. Krishnaswamy

The four-day strike carried out by workers of three estates in Bogawantalawa, over the controversial issues of pluckers’ daily norm and wage deductions, was called off Friday after the intervention of Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge.

The workers on strike had refused to accept their wages for December 2011 and the issue would have aggravated if not for the timely intervention of the Minister, Plantation Trade Union sources said.

Minister Lokuge told the Sunday Observer that at a meeting at his Ministry attended by representatives of the Unions, the Employers’ Federation and the Commissioner of Labour, he requested Union representatives to call off the strike and accept the wages offered by the employers (for December) as an ‘advance’ so that the matter could be further discussed and sorted out at a subsequent meeting at the Labour Office, Hatton. The Unions agreed to this request and called off the strike, he said.

The meeting has been fixed for January 21, he said.

Asked whether the managements of the estates had increased the productivity norm without consulting the estate level leaders of the Unions, as stipulated under the 1998 and 2011 Collective Agreements (CAs) on wage increases to workers, the Minister said these matters will be taken up for detailed discussion at the next meeting.

A Union representative who attended the meeting told the Sunday Observer that managements of these estates had increased the productivity norm by two kg per day without consulting the estate leaders and had cut down on the number of days they had attended work in proportion to the total kilo of leaves plucked.

This was contrary to the spirit of the CA, he said.