Wages Board Approves Rs. 1350 Daily Minimum Wage for Plantation Workers
Wages Board Agrees to Rs. 1350 Daily Minimum Wage for Plantation Workers
Plantation Companies and Unions agreed to a Rs. 1350 basic minimum wage for plantation workers at the wages board meeting yesterday. As per the agreement plantation workers will receive Rs. 1350 daily minimum wage and Rs. 350 "productivity incentive" totalling Rs. 1700. Sources revealed that the gazette instituting the new wages will be released tonight and a fourteen day objection period will commence.
Speaking on the productivity incentive, General Secretary of Ceylon Workers Congress shared that the wages board has the mandate to decide the wage and not the conditions of the wage. "The ball is in the companies court to put forward proposals for exactly what would qualify for the Rs. 350 productivity incentive," he said, "it might be based on a monthly kilogram quota or an attendance incentive we will have to wait and see."
Menaha Kandasamy, representing Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union who were one of three unions voting against the agreement, criticised the decision as "purely political" and "cheating the workers" by using the 1700 number while only paying the Rs. 1350 basic. "We want a Rs. 1700 daily basic wage because EPF, ETF, gratuity, maternity benefits are all based on the basic wage not allowances," she said, "moreover, companies can easily manipulate allowance to avoid paying them."
Industry sources, meanwhile, revealed that the agreement involved only a Rs. 1350 basic wage with productivity incentives. "The overkilo rate is a productivity incentive, which is now Rs. 50 rather than Rs. 40. They can even earn much more than Rs. 350 through this." The minutes of the meeting, which will reveal exactly what was discussed and agreed to, are yet to be released.
Besides the basic wage, productivity incentives, and duration of the wage agreement were discussed at the meeting. Plantation companies are insisting that the agreement be honored before the court, prior to withdrawing their ongoing case against the wages board which threatens to delay the actual delivery of the new wages.
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