Sri Lanka’s Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) have presented to state authorities with aim radically expanding worker earnings during a recently concluded meeting with the Minister of Labour and Trade Unions leaders. Workers may receive a total of LKR1,025 for a day’s work under this new proposal. The newly introduced proposal provides for a hybrid between the daily wage model and the productivity-linked earning systems implemented with great success in the smallholder sector.
Adding a productivity based component will ensure that worker earnings are expanded, and workers have more flexibility and control over their monthly earnings.
Under the new proposals, RPCs will continue to offer a fixed daily wage with the re-introduction of attendance and productivity incentives in a notable departure from previous years. The RPCs have proposed a mix of 3 days of daily wage and 3 days of productivity-based earnings, where workers will have the capacity to expand their earnings based on their output.
The first alternative under the productivity-linked proposal is a system where workers are paid LKR 50 for every kilogram of green tea leaf plucked (inclusive of EPF/ETF) where a high plucking average of between 30 - 40 kilograms a day is attained. RPCs pointed out that workers have the potential of expanding their earnings exponentially. In the case of the Rs. 50 rate, a worker who plucks 20 kg will receive Rs. 1,000 per day, and monthly pay of LKR 25,000.
Current annual plucking averages among RPC companies are between 20 - 22 kilograms a day. However, a majority of the best harvesters have plucking averages between 30 - 40 kilograms, which means that earnings can now be expanded to over LKR 37,500 - 62,000 per month.
The next alternative is that workers are remunerated based on a share of the National Sales Average (NSA) ratio of 35%.
Workers may receive a total of LKR1,025 for a day’s work under this new proposal.