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Further, this particular tea estate has also achieved 221 kilos per hectare yield in May, one of the highest productivity level recorded for a particular month. It was reported only last week that one Shanthi Kumari, a tea plucker attached to Mount Vernon estate has set up an all- time record by earning the highest monthly income in the history of the tea industry.
Tea in Sri Lanka was one time the largest foreign exchange export earnings plantation crop, but according to various surveys carried out at that time revealed that families working on tea estates were among the nations’ poorest in terms of earnings as well as nutrition. The tea industry was one of the leading sector until mid- eighties when it was overtaken by garments, foreign employment sector and now by tourism.
There have been wage negotiations every two years under the collective bargaining process between the estate worker unions and the plantation companies, and consequently daily wage rates of the estate workers increased by about 25% every two years. Prior to the wage increase granted in April 2013, an average worker could earn only Rs. 13,500 and the husband and the wife both working could earn some 27,000 rupees monthly to support their families including school-aged children.
At that time, when they were interviewed by say, NGOs operating at plantation level, the usual complaint was; Quote “The life is difficult. We survive somehow, but we cannot find any other job…” The living conditions were not satisfactory although there have been a number of initiatives to improve housing, water and sanitation, electricity supply etc. for tea estate worker community.
Situation has now substantially improved
The situation has now substantially improved for estate workers as well as children of tea estate workers. The estate mangers have been conducting regular training and educational programs covering household cash management, saving habits and prevention of alcoholism for their estate workers. The up country tea estates do not engage in the use of child labour and have a zero tolerance policy in this regard. Most of the estates have been striving to enhance the quality of life of the estate community and the villages around the estates.
The basic measure of the poverty is the size of ‘poor population’ which falls underneath the poverty line. The most widely used measurement of the poverty is the ‘Head Count Ratio’ which simply indicates the proportion of poor population below the poverty line as a%age of the total population. The Household Income and Expenditure (HIE) Survey has been the main data provider for calculating and determining both poverty and poverty lines of the country for over three decades and the Official Poverty Line (OPL) which is currently in use for measuring the poverty status of the country was also determined on the data collected by the HIES.
In 1990/91 the poverty headcount was 26.1% at national level and the estate sector was 20.5% and the rural sector was as high as 29.5%. By 2006/7, the national level head count for Sri Lanka has come down to 15.2% and it was further reduced to 8.9% in 2009/10 and the corresponding count for estate sector was 11.4%. The contribution by the estate sector to total poverty of the country is only 11.3% against the 82.1% contribution by the rural sector. As per latest statistics extracted with HIE survey undertaken in 2012/13, the poverty head count has come down to 6.5%. This is a healthy sign.
Estate mangers are now practicingparticipatory style of management in day today activities in developing the estates in consultation with the workers and allow them to earn decent monthly wages including productivity based incentives. Bogawantalawa estate continues to provide wide range of facilities to estateworkers which include: water supply and sanitation, housing with electricity, counseling, medical camps, sports activities and community forestry providing fuel-wood for heating etc.
Bogawantalawa tea estates sustainability is based on its promise that its long tern value creation for the stakeholders depends on the sustainable development of the estate land, resources and the community in which they operate. Towards that end, the company is striving to be self -sufficient in green energy to operate all tea factories through harnessing own hydro power potential within the estates.
The writer’s own view is that the tea industry, especially the up country tea sub sector is at cross roads. The demand for traditional Ceylon tea is declining and buyer requirements and consumer preferences are fast changing. As pointed out by marketing experts, the power lies with top global brands, food service chains, retailers etc. The prices at the Colombo auctions are higher than all other black teas in the global market and it may not be sustainable. Therefore, it has now become necessary to have a tri partite approach among the major stakeholders, namely the trade unions/employees, the regional plantation companies and the Government of Sri Lanka and look at the industrial issues with a fresh and open mind in the best interest of the tea industry.
