REASONS FOR LABOUR OUT GOING FROM THE TEA PLANTATION SECTOR IN SRI LANKA



A.S.Chandrabose Department of Social Studies, The Open University of Sri Lanka asboseou@yahoo.com

Tea plantations were introduced in Sri Lanka by the British during the early part of 19th century and rapidly developed into a major economic activity and led to the development of a new social structure in Sri Lanka.


In the Tea Plantation sector skill workers are the main Resource of the Organization, in this sector regular supply of Labour is essential throughout the year and the requirement is not only for the field work but also for Manufacturing for tea in Plantation sector.

Specially Pluckers are essential for this job. Nature of Works in the Tea Plantation Pattern of employment for the workers in the tea plantations has significantly changed over the last three decades, although plucking of tea leaves still continues with manual labour. It was mainly performed by the female workers, but it has been now extended to the male workers as well. Involvement of male workers in plucking of tea leaves generally began after the privatization of tea plantations in the 1990s But now a days the registered workers are moving from the Estates. However, the sector is experiencing a drastic decline of labour and a considerable number of labourers are moving out from the tea estates Outgoing labour from the plantation sector to other sectors in search of employment is a new phenomenon in Sri Lanka.

Specially in Tea Plantation, workers are totally different from the Other Industrial wage workers in the Country. 80% of the Indian Origin Tamils are working in the Estate Sector and reside within the area and most of the crowd are reside in Line rooms.

Skill workers were paid on daily wage rate, the daily wage includes the basic wages and other allowances which have been continuously altered, but the amount has always been low when compare to the rural and urban workers of Sri Lanka.  

For the following reasons are the plantation sector workers were moving from estates

(a) At present the basic wage for the estate worker is Rs.1150/=. The workers are entitled to receive Rs.1150/00 per day by working 8 hours in the working place. Ironically, still the estate workers are identified as low-income groups in the country.

(b) the Permanent workers in the estates prefer to be temporary workers in the estate in which they reside in order to engage in the estate job while they also wanted to get the advantages of working outside the estates for higher wages. This mostly persists among some of the male workers in the estates.

(c) The persons who have gone up to GCE O/L and could not sufficiently qualified in that examination have become the large portion of unemployed youth in the estates.

(d) A considerable number of youths with some education leave to urban areas especially to Colombo for jobs and after sometimes if they fail to settle down, they revert back to estates and remain as unemployed persons even though estate labour jobs are found in the estates.

(e) Though some children of the estate workers have qualified with secondary level education, they have only a limited chance to join in the staff grade jobs available in the estates.

The unemployed persons in the estates were generally educated youths. When asked about their opinion about joining estate work they showed unwillingness to pursue parental jobs. They also felt that it was not necessary to go for the parental job since they had enough income from several working members in their families. Further, they did not like the working conditions and style of management.

Plantation Sector Statistical Pocket Book 2000 (August 2000), and Statistical Information on Plantation Crops – 2011 (December 2011), Ministry of Plantation Industries, Colombo 02 .

In 1985 it was 458,617, and it dropped by 58 percent to 207,235 in 2011. The drop in the labour force seems to have been a common phenomenon during, the government ownership up to the1990s and during the private sector management thereafter.

The breakdown is as follows:

 a) 459,000 plantation workers retired and were sent back to India as repatriates under the Indo-Ceylon Pact, which was signed in 1964. This exodus continued up to 1984,.

b) After 1972, with the land reform (Nationalization of plantations), many families were chased out of the plantations particularly in the Kandy, Kegalle, Badulla and Ratnapura districts.

 c) There had been also migration of plantation workers from the low and mid country plantations to the north and east, in the aftermath of the 1983 ethnic violence, and it continued for some time thereafter.

d) Some workers also retired taking advantage of the premature retirement package offered for persons volunteering to retire before retiring age since the re-privatization in the 1992s either permanently or temporarily.

e) Displacement caused by the ethnic conflicts and development projects. After 1983 ethnic violence and with the civil war, a considerable number of plantation workers particularly from southern districts (Kandy, Kegalle, Badulla, Rathnapura and Galle) left the plantations Due to the development projects like Upper Kotmale hydro project, Victoria project, Randenigala project, Rantembe project and Mahaweli Oya project. When the plantations were requisitioned by the government the workers were displaced.

 Generally, the plantation workers are considered socially inferior. According to information gathered at the FGD, 71% of the workers are not willing to send their children for the plantation work for various reasons.

Conclusion

The tea workers are not merely confined to the estate works. The persons who study up to primary level have the tendency to join jobs other than plantation work. Continuity of poor housing, low wages are not motivated factors to attract the young workers to be involved in the privatized large scale tea estates. The privatized tea estate is engaging in recruitment of temporary workers mainly from other than the tea sector rather than traditional workers.

References

CHANDRABOSE, A.S, (2009), Labour Productivity in Tea Plantations The comparative studies in Sri Lanka and India. An unpublished PhD Thesis CHANDRABOSE.

A.S and SIVAPRAGASAM. P, (2012), Red Colour of Tea, CCFD and HDO, Kandy.

DAVID DUNHAM, (1997), The Labour Situation on Sri Lankan Tea estates, Research Studies Labour, Economic Series No13. ILO study on Employment and Unemployment Situation in Selected Plant


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