Plantation talks inconclusive

The PLC would meet again at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

October 13, 2015 09:10 pm | Updated 09:12 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Tea plantation workers plucking tea leaves at a plantation in Nelliyampathy in Kerala's Palakkad district. Photo: K. K. Mustafah

Tea plantation workers plucking tea leaves at a plantation in Nelliyampathy in Kerala's Palakkad district. Photo: K. K. Mustafah

The fifth meeting of the Plantation Labour Committee (PLC) to bring to an end the ongoing strike by an estimated 3.5 lakh plantation workers in Kerala has failed.  The PLC would meet again at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

The meeting, which last nearly four hours, did not make much progress as the trade unions and the plantation managements could not arrive at an agreement on the minimum wage payable to the workers. While the management representatives refused to go beyond Rs. 260 for those working in tea estates and less than that in estates cultivating other crops, the unions reportedly insisted on getting a minimum wage of Rs. 350 a day.

The trade unions had earlier in the day met the Labour Minister and reportedly communicated their readiness to climb down from their original demand for a daily wage of Rs. 500, prompting the Minister to claim that a solution to the stalemate appeared possible. But, at the talks, there was no meeting point between the unions and the managements.

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