RPCs renew call for productivity-linked wages amid sweeping reforms envisaged in economy

With the workforce dwindling to about 115,000 at present, from 327,000 in 1992, Sri Lanka’s Regional Plantation Companies (RPC) are calling the government to roll out systematic reforms in the plantation sector immediately, leading to a productivity-linked wage model, in order to reverse the labour migration trend.

“Looking to the future, our biggest challenges may well be ahead of us. Chief among them is the shortage of labour across the plantation sector. The RPC workforce has reduced from 327,000 in 1992, down to 115,000 approximately as of today and it’s continuing. If Sri Lanka is to reach national production targets, our first priority is to implement every viable measure to reverse migration of labour out of the plantation sector,” the newly-elected Planters’ Association (PA) Chairman Senaka Alawattegama said during the association’s 168th Annual General Meeting held in Colombo last Friday.

He outlined that a productivity-linked wage model, which servers the interest of the employees as well as the employers, is the only way forward for the survival of the plantation sector, without compromising the financial viability of the RPCs, which are responsible for the livelihoods of the same employees.

The plantation sector is one of the hardest-hit sectors by the on-going economic crisis, which could further trigger labour migration out of 
the sector.

He pointed out that the plantation workers stand to earn a substantially higher income than what they currently earn under the fixed wage model introduced during the colonial era, if a productivity-linked wage model is introduced. 

With the government seemingly moving towards a range of reforms at present, the RPCs are optimistic of the prospects of materialisation of such a productivity-linked wage model, as seen in the tea smallholder sector.

According to PA immediate past Chairman Bhathiya Bulumulla, the RPCs have seen at least a 30 percent increase in their cost of production over the past few months, which demands for a shift towards a productivity-linked wage model in the sector.