• Claim only hope for such is via productivity based wage model  

Amidst demands by estate sector trade unions and pressure from the Government for a daily wage hike for estate sector workers, the plantation companies stand firm on their stance that given the plantation industry’s current state, a wage hike is out of the question. The only way that a wage hike could not only materialise but also be beneficial to both the estate sector workers and regional plantation companies (RPCs), they said, is through the implementation of the long-proposed productivity-based wage model.

The matter became a topic of discussion recently with media reports claiming that President and Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ranil Wickremesinghe had, during a meeting with the plantation companies, instructed that steps be taken to increase the estate sector workers’ daily wage to Rs. 1,700 in response to their demands for a higher pay.

“We said that we cannot give a raise across the board without any improvement in productivity. We cannot afford that. We have already informed that we are in the process of discussing a revenue sharing model. We have made a very clear statement that we will agree on something that we can afford, and that affordability comes with other conditions such as increasing productivity. Otherwise, where do we get the money from,” the Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PAC)Media Spokesperson Dr. Roshan Rajadurai told The Daily Morning, adding that the industry is already struggling in its current state.

In reply to the question as to whether the estate sector workers’ and trade unions’ stance regarding the productivity based wage model has changed, Dr. Rajadurai said that estate sector workers prefer that as it affords them the opportunity to receive a higher wage, which he said could be almost double what they are getting paid at present. He also noted that, through such, workers would be afforded flexible-hours-based work with no time related restrictions. He said that while the Association has been promoting and advocating for this wage model for around a decade, it has been practicing the same for an equal period of time. According to him, under this wage model, workers earn from Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 80,000 a month. 

He opined that trying to increase wages except through a productivity-based wage model will result in the industry collapsing in a few years.