Estate worker daily wage

by Saman Indrajith

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued instructions to cancel the lease agreements of state-owned estates, land, and property leased to plantation companies and private firms if they fail to implement the latest daily wage increase to Rs. 1,700 per estate worker.

He gave this order following Labour Minister Manusha Nanayakkara informing the President that regional plantation companies (RPCs) have expressly refused to comply with President Wickremesinghe’s May 1 announcement of a 70% increase in the daily wage of estate workers to Rs. 1,700, according to sources from the President’s Office.

The Minister stated that the RPCs cited various reasons, including decreases in tea prices in the world market, for not complying with the government directive. The President pointed out that the estate workers had nothing to do with the world market price fluctuations and that the plantation companies must comply with the government order gazetted last week.

On Tuesday, a gazette notification was issued stipulating the daily minimum wage for estate sector workers to be Rs. 1,700. Accordingly, Extraordinary Gazette No. 2381/35 of April 25, 2024, has been approved by the Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment, Manusha Nanayakkara, with the new regulation coming into effect from May 21, 2024.

The President has instructed Minister Nanayakkara to obtain statistics pertaining to the tea industry, including the costs and profits of the companies, from the Treasury Secretary and to compare those figures with the cost of living and related figures of the estate workers. The President also instructed the minister to compile a report on the impact of the economic collapse between 2020-2022 on the status of estate workers and to submit the report within a week. If the RPCs do not comply with the government directive, action will be taken to cancel their leases and hand them over to other companies willing to pay the Rs. 1,700 wage increase to estate workers, the President said.