Estate workers want daily wage increase to Rs. 1000

Relatives of the estate families in the hill country who are currently working in Colombo yesterday staged a protest on Lotus Road urging the authorities to increase the daily wage of an estate worker to Rs. 1000.

A group of more than two thousand protesters gathered on Lotus Road and attempted to forcibly enter the Presidential Secretariat.

However, the police were able to bring the protesters under control after police placed barriers and water cannons. The basic salary of an estate worker per day is Rs.500. Their salaries are revised once every two years by the estate owners. The salaries were previously revised by Rs. 50 in 2016.

The Estate Owners are of the opinion that it was impossible to increase the basic salary to Rs.1000 because they are Pic by Pradeep Pathirana experiencing losses at present and added their factories had collapsed.

The protesters said although they had several rounds of discussions with the Estate Owners, they all failed.

Attempts to contact Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake failed as he is currently overseas.

When the Plantation Industries State Minister Champika Premadasa was contacted, he refused to make any statements saying he cannot make a statement on this issue in the absence of Minister Dissanayake.