Some plantations unable to pay EPF dues and gratuity payments of planters
Sri Lanka’s plantation sector was once the main revenue earner before foreign employment opened out and garment sector exports grew. Yet, tea is a frontline industry and ranked the third largest income source of income for country.
However, at present, the situation in the plantations is at a crisis point as some estates are unable to pay the statutory dues such as Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF), Employees Trust Fund (ETF) and gratuity payments to the employees.
It was brought to the notice of the Ceylon Planters’ Society (CPS) that the provident fund contributions deducted from the Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation and the Janatha Estates Development Board planting executives (planters) salaries are not being remitted to the relevant fund for the last six months or more. Some planters have obtained educational loans and housing loans are now being surcharged and are losing interest from their provident funds. This is an act of grave injustice.
The tragedies which have affected the planting community in the past are still fresh in our minds and they need no elaboration.
There were many (past) incidents where planters are being issued warrants, arrested and remanded for non – payment of EPF / ETF and gratuity dues to the employees on a regular basis.
Unlike the pre – nationalization period when the superintendents were directly responsible for effecting statutory payments, the present system is for the Managing Agents to do so. The superintendents are now mere facilitators and do not control such payents.
In this regard the CPS has written to the Commissioner General of Labour pointing out that the Superintendent should not be cited as a respondent whenever the labour officers prosecute them since the superintendent does not have any control over the above finances.
Even the statutory dues of the workers at the two state-owned plantations are yet to be settled. Proposals to this effect has been approved by the Cabinet Ministers on a recommendation by the State Resources and Enterprise Development Ministry to fell the state owned-plantation trees and sell the timber to pay the statutory dues of thousands of employees but we were told this exercise is yet to start. This is the first time trees are to be felled from the state plantations sector to raise funds to pay statutory dues of workers. The authorities must realize that these dues are their hard earned money.
Paying EPF/ETF and gratuity contributions is a continued process and these organizations would have to cut more and more trees in the coming years to pay the same dues unless they turn these loss-making institutions into profit-making enterprises.
However, our prime concern is the safety and dignity of member superintendents. The CPS has brought these matters to the notice of the Commissioner General of Labour, the Chairmen of the Janatha Estates Development Board and the Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation but no remedial action has been taken to address this acute problem the planters are facing.
The CPS has already requested President Mahinda Rajapaksa to conduct a thorough investigation into these matters and the CPS is hoping to get an early appointment with the President to bring to his notice the problems the planters and the industry are going through at the moment.
We must congratulate all state-owned estates planting executives that despite all these problems, they perform their duties efficiently and diligently because they are proud of the industry and wanted to ensure that no irreparable damage is done to this vital economy of our country. Newspaper reports recently said that the future of Sri Lanka’s tea industry is bright and that the government has initiated all measures necessary for updating and promoting the industry. The subsidy for re-planting has been increased to Rs. 350,000 from Rs. 300,000 per hectare; for new planting the amount has been increased to Rs. 235,000 and for the fertilizer subsidy Rs. 6 billion has been allocated in the current budget but only for smallholdings.
However the CPS has been informed that in some companies, there is no regular fertilizer application for this long term plantation crop. If so, this will certainly deteriorate the future agricultural conditions. The planter of tomorrow on such properties will become answerable for the poor performance. The state should consider giving increased subsidies on fertilizer to overcome the situation as an immediate measure otherwise further deterioration in the agricultural condition will be inevitable.
Meanwhile according to the Planter’s Association, the workers are getting a reasonable remuneration under the Collective Agreement on wage increases to them and they are also being provided other facilities. However, there were many critical issues brought up by eminent personnel at a workshop organized by the Pathfinder Foundation in Colombo recently. Among the issues raised were the high incidence of malnutrition and the poverty levels, deplorable housing conditions, water and sanitation problems. These are disturbing questions for which answers should be sought.
I do not wish to elaborate on all the unresolved key issues the industry is facing.
(The CPS says the writer, a former planter and former Editor of the CPS Bulletin, has been authorized to raise these
issues in the media)