Plantation workers still anxious

Fears that the notification the government will issue will go against workers have grown, after Labour Minister Shibu Baby John argued for the plantation owners in the Plantation Labour Committee (PLC). Because of the minister's stand, even the workers' just demands may be denied. The wage agreement that plantation workers won through a strong struggle could not be signed either. Wednesday's PLC meeting broke up without result because of the government's lack of interest.

The minister's statement, giving in to the plantation owners, that the PLC will not be called again was another setback for the workers. In effect the notification will become a collusion between the government and the APK, the plantation owners' association. The managements aim to tie up the revised wages and the other demands still undecided in legal knots.

The big planters insist that they cannot pay wage arrears from January 1, and cannot raise the over-kilo rate paid for extra work in the rubber sector or other benefits. They have also demanded that 50 more trees be tapped. They further want a fifth class created in rubber, the task raised from eight kilos to 12 kilos, and to 10 kilos in coffee, and the PLC term extended to four years.

The aim is to bury the workers' demands. Everyone was taken aback when the labour minister, like the planters, insisted that the 21 kilos of tea leaves workers pluck be raised to 27 kilos. Only the CITU strongly resisted what the minister announced unilaterally; the other unions are said to have finally sided with the minister. The CITU warned the minister that it would not sign the agreement, which made some other unions think again.

The plantation owners' association had earlier said it would pay wage arrears from January 1. Their backtracking now follows the government's wavering, said P S Rajan, general secretary of the Kerala Plantation Workers Federation (CITU). The wage increases, to Rs 381 in rubber, Rs 330 in cardamom and Rs 301 in tea and coffee, were agreed at the PLC meeting on October 14. There is still no clear decision on demands such as repairs to the line houses, land and houses of their own, health security and bringing workers under ESI.