JVP Parliamentarian Ramalingam Chandrasekaran, President of the All Ceylon Estate Workers Union has asked Labour Minister Athauda Seneviratne to intervene with the estate companies to increase the wages of estate workers.
A press release issued by the union, has pointed out that the Collective Agreement on Wages already signed expired in March 2008.
Chandrasekaran says in the press release that the estate workers are unable to cope meet the cost of living with the present wages.
If the reasonable wage hike is not given, the estate workers will be compelled to resort to trade union action. He recalls that the 2006 strike launched to press for a wage hike led to the loss of Rs 300 million for the plantation management.
“This shouldn’t happen again and therefore the plantation companies should be granted a reasonable wage increase,” says the release. (MT)