Planters advocate revenue-share model along with daily pay...

The workers of the regional plantation companies (Rpcs) managed estates have earned as much as Rs.89,000 last month alone by working on tea fields that have been allocated to them on a revenueshare scheme, a Planters’ Association (PA) communiqué said.

The top 20 pluckers from a hill country estate had earned on average Rs.65,000 to Rs.80,000 for the month of October alone.

In the recent past, due to the shortage of workers, the RPCS have sought the services of retired employees and allocated blocks of tea fields for tending and plucking. This has seen a surge in livelihood generation where the pluckers, not bound by norms and pay-roll obligation, have earned two to three times their daily wage.

The RPCS therefore have been advocating this very model for estate workers as the most plausible solution for both the worker and RPC—A model whereby the worker gets to manage and take charge of an area allocated to them.

This scheme allows a worker to pluck as much as she or he can with no limits or norms for daily plucking, resulting in pluckers bringing in as much as 40 to 50 kilogrammes per day and collectively as a family have accounted for over 150 kilogrammes per day.

The RPCS are confident that this revenue-sharing model in addition to the daily wages system is a progressive step and one that will benefit both the worker and the grower.

Deliberated for some time now and included in the 2016 collective agreement, signed by the trade union leaders and the Employer’s Federation of Ceylon, the applicable clause states: “The unions undertake to support the improvement of the productivity of the industry and at estate level by moving to productivity-linked wage regime based on revenue share/ out-grower models, etc. through the next agreement. In pursuance of this objective, parties agree to meet and discuss the modalities of implementing the above during the course of this agreement.”

The RPCS reiterate that the old archaic wage model must be replaced by the more progressive revenue-share one that allows a worker unlimited potential to earn.

This year, the RPCS have put forward their recommendation of paying out Rs.46 for every kilogramme of tea plucked, which will warrant a daily wage of at least Rs.1012 for 22 kilogrammes of plucked tea leaves.

“We hope the leaders of the trade unions will appreciate this step in elevating the livelihood of workers from daily paid to being in charge of how much they earn at their pace,” a PA spokesperson said.

Tracing the rationale behind the revenue-share model, the PA explained that currently the estates operate on a 50 percent depleted workforce. In 1992, there were 327,000 workers. The number has now dwindled to 160,000.

“Only 16 percent of all residents on estates are workers. The rest are dependents,” the spokesperson noted.

Under the revenue-share scheme, a worker is offered 25 full working days plus the opportunity of working on the revenue-sharing land, which they do eagerly as if it were their own.

Under their management, the fields have flourished with the RPCS paying an enhanced rate for the crop harvested by them from these areas.

“No worker can be forced to be part of the revenue-share model but we find enthusiasm with the pensioners also plucking and tending these lands,” explained the PA.

“The Rs.80,000 earned is incremental earnings and not through the daily wages system.”

The revenue-share scheme is being piloted across several estates and the workers themselves maintain that the model helps overcome inordinate shortage of labour while enabling them unlimited enhancement of income and livelihood.

“In the new model, remuneration depends on the worker’s output as opposed to the archaic attendance-based wage used at present, which provides little incentive to increase productivity and the new model thus also gives workers greater control over their earnings,” the PA noted.

Sri Lanka’s 400,000 tea smallholders, who produce nearly 75 percent of the nation’s total amount of green leaf, function on a similar basis and have more than doubled the extent of their cultivations between 1992 and 2017, reflecting the viability, the success and the attractiveness of this model for all the parties involved and in the process have bettered their quality of life as well.