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Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram , June 23

THE State Government has notified higher wages for plantation workers after failing to get the plantation owners and workers to arrive at an agreed wage package despite repeated attempts.

As per the notification, the rubber plantation workers will get a 30 per cent increase in their daily wages, while the workers in tea, coffee and cardamom plantations will get a 16 per cent increase. The Government has notified the wages in the hope that workers will call off their strike, which is more than a week old, in response to the gesture.

The Labour Minister, Mr Babu Divakaran, told newspersons here on Thursday that the decision to notify the revised wages was taken after over 30 rounds of meetings by the Plantation Labour Commissioner with the representatives of the owners and workers since March 2002 did not produce any result. He hoped that the owners and workers would respond positively to the decision and the latter would call off their agitation.

The Minister said that the wage hike was linked to productivity increase. Accordingly, the rubber plantation workers would be required to tap 50 trees more daily and the tea-leaf pluckers would have to raise their daily productivity from the present 14 kg to 16 kg.

The notification will take effect once the objections and complaints relating to it are processed and disposed of, which would take around three months. Any outstanding issue could be discussed and sorted out at future meetings with the Plantation Labour Commissioner, Mr Divakaran said.

He noted that the Government was doing its best to improve the lot of the plantation workers. For one, it has decided to bear the entire cost of professional education of the workers. The Government will issue an order to this effect in a couple of days.

Besides, the Government has been providing free ration to the workers' families in crisis-ridden plantations, and uniforms, books, bags and umbrellas to the children of indigent workers. It has also earmarked Rs 5 crore for supply of essential drugs to workers who are in need of them.

The Minister said that the Government was working on a habitat scheme for the plantation workers. The scheme, proposed to be implemented with the participation of the Union Government and the local bodies, aims at providing own shelters to the workers.

A pilot project for construction of 200 houses under the scheme will be implemented in Idukki district.

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