Give estate workers a wage hike: Sathasivam

By S.S.Selvanayagam
In the face of the high cost of living and the recent increase in the price of fuel, the Estate Workers’ Alliance urged the Labour Minister to increase the wages of the estate workers, not considering the relevant Collective Agreement.

General Secretary of the Alliance S.Sathasivam, who is also an advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in a memorandum to Labour Minister Athauda Seneviratne, pushed for the wage increase to plantation workers and cautioned that failure to act in this issue will leave the plantation workers with no alternative but to call for trade union action.He brought to the notice of the Labour Minister that the plantation workers are experiencing lot of difficulties in their day to day living due to the high cost of living. He said estate workers are not only working for their living but are responsible for generating a huge amount of foreign exchange into the country as well.

He said this as he had learnt that the Labour Minister was considering increasing the salaries of private sector employees from 15% to 25%.

Although the Collective Agreement is an obstacle for the wage increase of plantation sector employees, he insisted the Minister treat plantation workers as much as he did workers in the private sector and consider giving them a reasonable wage increase, in accordance with the high cost of living.