Higher attendance incentives and productivity a must for any new wage formula

Any new wage formula for estate workers should have a higher component to incentivise attendance and productivity, the Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners’ Association stated.

In an emailed statement, the association’s President Harith Ranasinghe pointed out that tea smallholders are responsible for 70% of tea produced in the country and a large portion of this is processed in the association’s member factories. “It is well known that less than 20% of tea smallholders manage their fields by use of family labour. The rest depends on hired workers,” Mr Ranasinghe noted.

According to Mr Ranasinghe, for non-corporate tea estates, a 20% increase in worker wages may lead to serious viability issues. This can have far reaching consequences on the industry.

He pointed out that Wages Board decisions on the tea growing and manufacturing sector often followed parallel to the decisions of the Collective Agreement between unions and employers. This may happen again, he noted. “Non- Corporate tea estates and tea processing factories, of which a majority are members of our association, are bound by the Wages Board decisions. Any unrealistic, unaffordable increase imposed on corporate sector will eventually filter down to unacceptable, unaffordable increases in wages in tea growing and manufacturing sector.” he warned.

The main problem faced by the tea factories, as far as workers are concerned, is the poor attendance of the workers to handle the fixed workload, he opined. “Therefore, we wish any new wage formula to have a higher component to incentivise attendance and productivity,” he added.