The ‘go slow’ campaign started by workers of the 23 Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) continued for the fourth consecutive day yesterday. The workers are demanding a daily wage of Rs.1000 from their current daily wage of Rs.624. In response the management of RPCs have closed the factories and removed the staff. The picture shows plantation workers unloading their picks at the locked premises of a tea factory in Hatton
Pic by Ranjith Rajapaksha
Ongoing worker strike costs RPCs heavily
Plantation Association still open for negotiations
By Chandeepa Wettasinghe
The worker strikes across the estates of the 23 Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) are costing the entities Rs.120 million daily, the Sri Lanka Plantation Association Chairman told Mirror Business.
“We are making huge losses. The RPCs collectively are losing around Rs.120 million a day,” Roshan Rajadurei said.
The situation has arisen due to the trade unions—backed by certain political parties—implementing a ‘go slow’ action to demand a Rs.1,000 base wage from the RPCs.
A number of politicians, along with cabinet ministers were observed to be participating at protests in plantation areas.
During the strike, the workers have been instructed by the trade unions to pluck just 1-2 kilogrammes of tea leaves daily.
Rajadurei said that RPCs are still open for negotiations, though the unions have walked out.
“This is an illegal strike. So we have evacuated our staff and closed our factories to secure our stocks and machinery. We are not accepting any leaf and they are not getting paid. The workers are plucking by force without supervision and trying to enter the factories to run them,” he said.
He noted that the RPCs had produced less than 5 percent of the weekly average tea prior to the ‘go slow’ motion, but said that since the Colombo Tea Auction had managed to only sell 40-50 percent of the manufactured tea in the past 2 months due to global macroeconomic issues, stocks are available.
Rajadurei said that the quality of tea as well as the quality of life in the plantation areas will suffer due to the strike in the future.
“The trade unions have brought it upon themselves. They must understand that we are selling the tea they’re plucking to make money, and after we have paid them only are we investing in agricultural practices, upkeep and development. After the strike we’ll have to cut down on fertilizer, and worker housing and development. Everything will go downhill,” he added.
An increase of base wage to Rs.1,000 does not appear to be justified, as Sri Lankan workers pluck an average of 18 kilogrammes a day and gets paid a Rs.620 base wage, which increases to Rs.1026 when taking into consideration EPF/ETF, gratuity housing, paid leave, medical and bonus payments.
In contrast, South Indian workers pick an average 38 kilogrammes a day for a wage—when converted—of Rs. 426, Kenyan workers get paid Rs. 443 for an average haul of 48 kilogrammes and pluckers from Assam are paid Rs.202 for 26 kilogrammes daily.
Even in the local smallholder sector, which accounts for 70 percent of the tea production, the daily base wage is Rs.450. However, some smallholders pay workers based on productivity, which has seen some pluckers earning over Rs. 1200 a day.
“The smallholder workers; they have a better quality of life. They’re educating their children and building houses. We forwarded 2 very favourable productivity based wage proposals to the trade unions, so that they could have a way out to work, but they were rejected,” Rajadurei said.
He noted that the situation has arisen due to RPCs providing year-around guaranteed work and pay rises even when RPCs couldn’t afford to do so.
“It would have been justified if they were asking for raises when the tea industry was looking up, but tea prices have fallen by 20 percent. Not just in Sri Lanka, but across the world,” Rajadurei said.
He further said that RPCs are supporting worker dependents from ‘cradle to the grave’. While there are around 250,000 registered workers, the RPCs provide for a 1 million population in the plantation areas.
Due to past increases in wages, labour accounts for over 70 percent of the production costs of RPCs. The companies collectively lost Rs. 3.45 billion in 2014, and had continuously lost around Rs.2-2.5 billion since 2012.
