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Estate sector wage hike: Meeting postponed to Thursday

29 Dec 2020

  • Govt. and RPCs to meet on 31 Dec for final decision
By Sarah Hannan The meeting between government ministers and owners of regional plantation companies (RPCs) has been rescheduled to 31 December, it is learnt. During last week’s meeting, the RPCs had requested a week’s time to get back with the terms and conditions they plan to agree upon, as not all RPCs were willing to increase the minimum daily wage to Rs. 1,000.  Speaking to The Morning, Minister of Labour Nimal Siripala de Silva said: “Although we were scheduled to meet on Monday (28), the RPCs requested a few more days to arrive at an agreement and inform us of their decision on improving the minimum daily wage, or improving incentives for estate workers. The meeting was therefore rescheduled to 31 December.” During last week’s meeting, de Silva said that a few suggestions were made to ensure that the workers’ performance could be assessed to provide them with a minimum daily wage of Rs. 1,000.  It had been suggested that every employee be required to work 180 days a year, and it was agreed to give them an additional target of one kg of tea to be plucked daily. De Silva said: “Regardless of all these conditions, I informed the RPCs that the minimum daily wage should be increased to Rs. 1,000 for all employees, and at no point should the factory managers deduct from the weight of the tea that gets plucked, stating that they were damaged or wasted when transferring them to the weighing crates.”  De Silva also stated that if the RPCs disagree with increasing the daily wage as directed, the Government is willing to take over the management of such plantation companies.


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