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Collective agreement at risk

18 Jan 2020

By Easwaran Rutnam A collective agreement signed between regional plantation companies (RPCs) and trade unions is at risk following a push by the Government to increase the daily wage of plantation workers to Rs. 1,000. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced last week that the daily wage will be increased to Rs. 1,000 from 1 March. However, the RPCs have accused the President of taking an arbitrary decision which places a collective agreement signed last year at risk. The RPCs have refused to agree to increase the daily wage without proper consultations, The Sunday Morning learnt. Sources said that the RPCs would require at least Rs. 10 billion to increase the salary from the current daily wage of Rs. 855, which includes a basic daily wage of Rs. 700 and other additions. Trade unions had, over the past two years, demanded a daily basic wage of Rs. 1,000 but later agreed to the final offer made by the RPCs and signed a revised collective agreement last year. RPCs are scheduled to meet Minister of Plantation Industries and Export Agriculture Dr. Ramesh Pathirana this week to discuss their concerns over the proposal. Meanwhile, the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) said it was deeply perturbed to read media reports on a proposed salary increase for estate workers. At present, the RPCs and two signatory unions, namely, the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) and the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union (LJEWU), are covered and bound by the collective agreement entered into in terms of Sri Lankan law that decided on current wages and which will be effective at least till January 2021. The EFC said that if the proposed increase was to be mandated on the RPCs, it will be inconsistent with the legal provisions as well as the values of the “core” International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 98 on collective bargaining. The EFC warned that the move will also have a disastrous financial impact not only on the RPCs but also on the smallholders and eventually lead to the collapse of the industry.  

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