April 03, 2002

    The Government will set up a committee to study and suggest solutions to the problems faced by Plantation Industry in the country. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Tripartite Industrial Committee on Plantation Industry presided over by the Labour Minister Shri Sharad Yadav here today. The Committee will have representatives from Union Ministries of Finance, Commerce, Labour and concerned State Governments. The Labour Secretary Shri Vinod Vaish announcing the decision said that the Committee will look into the rising cost of production of tea, coffee, rubber and their falling exports. It will also go into the text burden on the industry. Other issues that the Committee will look into are low productivity, alleged low quality of imported tea for purposes of exports and sharing the burden by other ministries for providing social services to the employees in the industry. Shri Vaish said that the Labour Ministry would request the Second Labour Commission also to address some of these concerns.

    Earlier inaugurating the Meeting the Labour Minister Shri Yadav urged for evolving a consensus to resolve the crises faced by the Plantation Industry. He said that the Committee should be time bound. Shri Yadav said that the defaulting employers will have to pay EPF dues and terminal benefits of their employees. The Minister said that it is proposed to amend the Plantation Labour Act 1951 to increase its coverage by raising income limit from Rs.750 to Rs.10,000/- per month, provide garden and group hospitals, raise the age limit so that children below 14 do not work in plantations and increasing the punishment for violating the Act.

    The industry employs about twenty lakh people. The Employers Associations said that the Plantation Industry is finding it difficult to meet losses incurred due to low prices. They said that the wholesale price of per kilogram of tea in South India is around Rs.40/- while the cost of production has gone up upto Rs.65/-. They demanded that excise duty on tea industry should be abolished. They also demanded that duty on tea and rubber exported to Russia be brought down to earlier level of 5% from the present 20%. The employers wanted the government to consider exemption from payment of PF dues of workers.

    The Employees representatives said that the workers are worst hit by the prices as in many estates payment is not made to workers regularly. They claimed that in South India wages have been cut by 20%. They said that concessions given to industry do not percolate down to the workers. They also wanted that private sale of quality tea should be made public.

    The Meeting was attended by the representative of the various tea plantation associations, trade unions and senior officials of Labour & Commerce Ministries and some State Governments.