A revolt is brewing in the tea gardens

The plantation sector was in turmoil at the time this column was written. Clashes had erupted between the members of the Ceylon Workers Congress and other trade unions. Confusion reigned among the three trade unions negotiating with the plantation companies about wage increase for the plantation workers.
At Hatton two trade unions aligned to the government, The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) led by Minister Arumugam Thondaman and the Upcountry Peoples’ Front (UPF) led by Minister Periyasamy Chandrasekaran clashed on Sunday. At Bogawantalawa the motorcade of the Democratic Workers Congress led by Mano Ganeshan was attacked. Ganeshan alleged that the stone throwing attack was led by the local leaders of the CWC.
Reports that reached this column on Monday morning said tension was high in the entire hill country with workers taking processions denouncing the reported decision of the CWC leadership to accept the Rs. 405 daily wage. They demanded the trade unions to stick to the Rs. 500 daily wage demand.
The offer made by the Employers Federation Ceylon (EFC) which was negotiating on behalf of the 22 Regional Plantation Companies which manage the tea and rubber estates with the three major plantation trade unions, the CWC, the UNP led Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union (LJEWU) and Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre (JPCTU). These three trade unions have been accepted by the employers as representing the majority of the tea estate workers.
The EFC offered on Saturday a total daily wage of Rs. 405 and CWC announced that it had accepted and requested the tea workers to return to work saying that the collective agreement would be signed on Monday. The break up of the EFC offer was: basic wage of Rs. 290, attendance allowance of Rs. 90 and plucking allowance of Rs. 25. The workers received total wage of Rs. 290 under the previous collective agreement which expired on March 31. Under that agreement the basic wage was Rs. 200, attendance allowance was Rs. 70 and the plucking allowance was Rs. 20.
LJEWU president K. Velayutham and JPTUC Secretary General O.A. Ramaiah rejected the offer and said they were not consulted. Ramaiah said he was not invited for any meeting on Saturday. He said his union would continue the go slow which the three signatories to the collective agreement launched jointly on September 1.
The CWC celebrated the decision of the EFC to offer Rs. 405 daily wage lighting crackers and offering sweets in their offices. Members of the other unions did not join the celebrations. Reports from plantation areas said a large number of CWC members too were dissatisfied with the decision of their leaders. Palani Andi, a worker in a tea estate in Hatton acidly summed up the feeling of the workers, “For the leaders it is a victory. Not for us.” His wife, a tea plucker, said, “They have let the workers down again.”
At present about 220,000 workers work on estates owned by plantation companies, 200,000 in private sector companies and another 20,000 in state owned plantations. Privatisation of the plantations began under the UNP government in 1977. It was done because the estates managed by the state lost money. At the start plantation management was decentralised and handed to 12 divisional boards. In 1992 the boards leased out the estate management to private companies.
Privatisation resulted in a drastic decline in working conditions and in the neglect of the welfare facilities provided by the estates. Wage package too failed to reflect the cost of living increase. Studies have established the living standard of the estate workers declined steadily while the conditions of the rural and urban sectors increased. Poverty had increased in the plantation sector while it declined in the other sectors.
The total wage package of a plantation worker in 1992 was around Rs 60 per day. In 1998 when the first collective agreement was signed between the EFC and the three trade unions the wage package was Rs 101/- per day. Since then wages have been revised every two years through Collective Agreements. The wage agreement was re-negotiated and revised in December 2006.
Under the December 2006 agreement, the total wage package of a plantation worker was Rs 260 per day. It consisted of a basic wage of Rs 170, price share supplement of Rs20 and an attendance incentive of Rs 70. Later it was increased to Rs.290, which includes a basic wage of Rs.200, a non-variable wage of Rs.20 and an attendance allowance of Rs.70 which was paid if workers turn up for 75 percent of the working days offered by estate companies.
A new wage structure was being negotiated since the expiry of the last collective agreement on March 31. Eight rounds of talks had been held and the EFC had first offered 12.5 percent increase. Later it raised the total wage to Rs. 330 and then to Rs. 360. On Saturday it made the Rs. 405 offer.
Most of the trade union leaders this columnist spoke to feel that if they press a little more they could get a better offer. They also charge the CWC leadership of being concerned more about their political future than about the welfare of the workers.
The growing animosity against the political leadership of the trade unions was voiced by several workers in their interviews to the television channels. “They are looking after themselves,” is the underlying theme of their interviews.
The workers resent vigorously the new pompous life style of the trade union officials, the new elite in the plantation sector. The workers comment about their dress, houses and vehicles. With education seeping to the lower strata the contradiction between the poverty of the workers and opulence of the new rich is being noted.
Voices of dissent about the burden of their life is heard from the estate workers. “Our wage is not sufficient for even one full meal a day. Look at this child. Look at its pitiable condition,” a mother shouted as she pushed her child in front of the television camera man.
Unnoticed, a revolt is brewing in the tea gardens.