President to work out wage crisis on plantations

President Maithripala Sirisena is expected to hold a meeting tomorrow with the tea industry stakeholders in a bid to overcome the current issue pertaining to the biannual wage increase demanded by unions in a sum of Rs.1000. The President is likely to meet the EFC, RPCs, and the unions tomorrow around 10am.
Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) Director General Kanishka Weerasinghe representing the Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) met with the three signatory estate sector trade unions the Ceylon Workers Congress, the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers’ Union (LJEWU) and the Joint Plantation Trade Union Centre (JPTUC) on Sunday where the two sides placed their respective positions on the negotiation table.
CWC Vice President S. Arullsamy told the Times Online that President Sirisena had agreed to resolve the issue of wage hike and obtain a “reasonable wage increase” for the estate workers.
President Sirisena had requested the workers to return to work on the estates in the face of the current economic situation of the country as a result of which the trade unions had agreed to call off their strike in force since last Wednesday.
He had made this request at a meeting held with the CWC leader A. Thondaman and other party representatives including Mr. Arullsamy on Tuesday (Dec. 18) where he had agreed to summon all stakeholders to a meeting tomorrow.
However, EFC Plantation Services Group Chairman Roshan Rajadurai said that even by today they had not been informed of any meeting with President Sirisena nor had they been summoned for a meeting with him on the wage hike.
The indefinite strike commenced on December 4 for a 100 per cent increase in wages from Rs.500 to Rs.1000 that the RPCs state was impossible to provide. But RPCs note that workers could achieve this amount by agreeing to work on the productivity model. RPCs issuing a statement two weeks ago noted that they had incurred a daily revenue loss of Rs.250 million due to the strike action with one week’s losses accumulating to Rs.1.25 billion. (Sunimalee)