Wage accord reached in 2005 would expire in December
Bandh observed at Valparai on Sunday was “engineered” by vested interests
VALPARAI: The first round of talks between estate managements and trade unions for revision of wages for plantation workers will begin in Coimbatore on Wednesday.
B. Ramkumar, secretary, Planters Association of Tamil Nadu (PAT), said the wage accord reached in 2005 would expire in December.
Referring to the stay obtained by the Nilgiris Small Tea Growers’ Association on further proceedings of the Minimum Wages Advisory Committee for revision of wages, he said it would in no way affect the negotiations between the managements of large estates and the unions, “since such negotiations are not for fixing minimum wages but for fair wages, which are much higher than the statutory minimum wages.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the PAT clarified that it was the Nilgiris Small Tea Growers’ Association that had obtained the stay, and not the estate managements.
The current negotiated wage payable to estate workers at Valparai was Rs. 79.55 a day and not Rs. 77.
There had been three wage settlements since 1997 in Valparai, and the revised wage in Kerala was Rs. 91.34 a day.
Valparai MLA Kovai Thangam’s contention that 50,000 estate workers had migrated from Valparai was as misleading, Mr. Ramkumar said.
The number of workers in tea estates had not exceeded 25,000 even at the best of times. Furthermore, he said, migration was confined not only to Valparai.
The bandh observed at Valparai on Sunday was engineered by vested interests that were bent upon politicising a trade union issue and were the least concerned about the survival of the labour-intensive industry.
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