• Govt., CWC, RPCs, EFC to discuss, Thondaman to go to Wage Board if RPCs response unsatisfactory  

Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development and Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) Leader Jeevan Thondaman yesterday (15) stated that the Government would very soon commence talks with the regional plantation companies (RPCs) and the Employer’s Federation of Ceylon (EFC) with regard to the wage increment of plantation workers. 

“The Government will speak to the RPCs and if we are not satisfied with their response, then we will have to approach the Wage Board directly. As a Trade Union, we have asked the RPCs, and they have given us their response. If they are not willing to listen to the Union, then the Government has a chance to persuade them. If that fails, the Wage Board is the only option. We have given a very clear-cut timeline that the two-year period is over and that we need to go to the Wage Board. When we go to the Wage Board, the salary decided by them will stick and that will be a basic salary. However, when it comes to the collective agreement, we will not only have a basic salary but will also have a productivity and attendance incentive which will benefit the companies as well,” he added. 

Minister Thondaman also said: “Apart from the increase in the cost of living and the economic crisis, there is also a need for a wage increase because the period of two years is over. Every two years, there is a wage increase, and in the past two years, we have tried to speak to the companies, and come to an amicable solution on the wage increase. We were hoping that the companies would come to a collective agreement where the workers would get an increment in their basic wage, which should correlate with the cost of living and that beyond that, there would be an incentivised scheme. There would be a productivity and attendance incentive and a price share supplement, as it used to be before. The companies did not seem to act in good faith to get into a collective agreement. Therefore, we took a call to have a meeting with the Wage Board. Minister of Labour Manusha Nanayakkara and President Ranil Wickremesinghe had been communicated to in this regard. Despite us being in the Cabinet of Ministers, we also have to act in our capacity as a Trade Union as well as a former signatory of the collective agreement. The wages are going to be decided soon. Before that, from the Government’s side, we are going to have a discussion with the RPCs and the EFC regarding this. Based on that, we will decide. However, we are confident that we are going to the Wage Board to get the wage increase.”

The collective agreement of the plantation workers’ wage increment is signed between the EFC representing the RPCs and the trade unions, the CWC and the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers’ Union, but it expired two years ago.