Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

INTUC plea for plantation workers

Staff Reporter

`Find solution to wage issue'

COIMBATORE: The Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) has appealed to the State Government to find a solution to the wage issue of the plantation workers in Anamalai and the Nilgiris.

The State president of the Union, P.L. Subbiah, said in a release here that the plantations in the Nilgiris and Anamalai provided employment to more than one lakh workers. For the last five years the workers were waiting for a wage revision.

Referred to Tribunal

The State Government had referred the issue to the Special Industrial Tribunal. However, "the progress before the Tribunal is pathetic. It is more than four years since the reference was made. But the workers are yet to see the conclusion of the proceedings."

Since the issue had been pending before the Tribunal for long, "the workers will lose their faith in adjudication," he said.

The workers in Kerala received Rs. 92.61 as daily wages. However, in Tamil Nadu, the maximum was Rs. 78.91 a day.

Wage difference

Mr. Subbiah said that in Valparai, one of the estates was located on both sides of the Sholayar Dam. Due to the wage difference in the two States, the workers on the Kerala side and those on the Tamil Nadu side were getting different wages.

Further, though about 40,000 workers were in the plantations in Valparai, only 16,000 were permanent workers who got the statutory benefits and the wages.

The others were denied the statutory benefits, he alleged. Similarly, in the Nilgiris only about 22,000 of the 40,000 workers were permanent.

He appealed to the State Government to take immediate steps to correct the aberration. Otherwise, workers would have to resort to direct action, he warned.

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