Tea industry not consulted on wage hike
Sri Lanka’s tea industry is once again in a quandary as to how the government arrived at a decision to propose a Rs.1750 wage for estate workers when they there was no discussions, so far with relevant stakeholders.
Galle and Kalutara Tea Smallholders Association President Ushan Samarasinghe told The Sunday Times Business that this matter should have ideally been discussed with all stakeholder prior to arriving at a decision in this regard.
He noted that when queried from other stakeholder associations it was found that no party was consulted in arriving at this decision.
“Do they have a policy or plan for the tea industry? This government has not put forward any policy and in fact if they want to increase estate worker wages to Rs.1750 then what measures have they taken to ensure that workers can receive this increase” Mr. Samarasinghe said.
He noted that there should be a policy on how workers wages will be increased and if it is in keeping in line with increase in tea prices then what would happen when tea prices decline?
Even if the government wants to make these increases in line with their chances of getting more votes at the next election or fulfil promises made to workers then the industry should be consulted, he noted.
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