The Wages Board has approved the daily wage increase of Tea estate workers today (08). The Ceylon Estate Workers’ Congress (CWC) said. Accordingly, the wages board has decided that the daily wage of all estate workers should be increased to Rs. 900 while they should be also paid a daily allowance of Rs. 100.
A special discussion was held today (08) at the Ministry of Labor under the patronage of the Commissioner General of Labor with the participation of the Chief Executive Officers of the Estate Trade Unions and Plantation Companies.
The plantation companies had proposed to increase the daily wage of a plantation worker to Rs. 565. However, the plantation unions and the government proposed that plantation workers be paid a daily basic salary of 900 rupees and a bonus of 100 rupees.
Eight votes were cast in favour of the estate management’s motion and 11 votes were cast in favour of the trade unions’ motion. Accordingly, the proposal to pay a daily wage of Rs. 1000 to a plantation worker was passed by a majority of three votes.
Nuwara Eliya District Parliamentarian Marudapandi Rameshwaram, the Treasurer of the Estate Workers’ Congress, said that the plantation companies should pay the workers a salary of Rs. 10000 after the gazette is published.
