The end of the 17-day strike by nearly three lakh plantation workers in Kerala, following a wage settlement before a tripartite committee, should come as welcome relief to the ailing sector. It took six rounds of negotiations at meetings of the Plantation Labour Committee, comprising representatives of managements, trade unions and the government, to do that. Under the settlement, the daily wages of workers in tea, coffee, cardamom and rubber plantations will go up by a fair measure. The agitation drew much political attention as it followed a successful strike by women workers at Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Ltd in Munnar last month. Keeping out the mainstream trade unions, the women organised themselves independently to extract a 20 per cent bonus offer from the management, comprising 8.33 per cent statutory bonus and 11.67 per cent ex gratia payment. It was obvious that the women’s initiative gave the required impetus to a wider agitation across the State, and fuelled fears of fraternal strikes in other plantations in the country. The State government, which knew that the workers’ demand for higher wages for livelihood was justified, was caught in a dilemma as it was equally aware of the crisis gripping the sector owing to falling commodity prices and allied ills. It is possible that the authorities got the managements to arrive at a wage settlement by offering concessions in the form of lower plantation tax and agricultural income tax, besides subsidised electricity supply.
There is little doubt that the conditions of workers in the plantation sector leave much to be desired. Many of them live on-site in one-room line houses, and the scope for quality education for their children is limited. The government’s plans to upgrade housing and provide more schools in the plantation areas are welcome, but it requires sustained effort to bring about a significant change in the workers’ lot. The plantation managements have their stories of woe too. They say rising production and labour costs have made their produce uncompetitive in both domestic and overseas markets. Contending that the average price of each kilogram of tea, rubber or cardamom is less than the cost of production, planters have sought to link wage increases with a corresponding enhancement in labour productivity. It is in the fitness of things that the government has also decided to appoint a one-man commission to go into the gamut of issues in the sector. The bottom line is that while the entire sector needs to improve its competitiveness and productivity, it is equally important that the plantations remain responsible employers.
