United Planters’ Association of Southern India denounces strike tactics of tea workers in Kerala

KOCHI: The United Planters’ Association of Southern India ( Upasi) decried the cohesive tactics adopted by the employees of some tea estates in Kerala to wrest their demands when, it said, the plantation industry in the state pays highest basic wages of Rs 232 per day for tea plantation workers in the country.

Upasi president Vijayan Rajes said the wages added with statutory and other benefits work out to Rs 410.72 per day. The basic wage of tea plantation workers in Kerala went up by 5.19 times in 20 years while the average south Indian tea price increased by 1.95 times in that period. The basic wage for a tea plantation worker in 1995 was Rs 44.71 per day and the average tea price was Rs 41.25. It has become Rs 232 and Rs 80.42 now respectively, he said.

Plantation sector in south India provides employment to 3.6 lakh workers throughout the year and gives them social security and other welfare amenities. No concession is extended to plantation sector by way of reduction of taxes for shouldering such expenses, Rajes said in a statement. The agricultural income tax in Kerala is as high as 50% compared with 25% levied by Central government.

According to him the plantation management is ready to sit with the workers’ representatives and the government to negotiate and fix the wages which are affordable to the industry.