The Hindu Business Line : TN: Planters, unions sign new wage accord

THE stalemate between the plantation managements in the Valparai (Coimbatore), Highways (Theni) and Manjolai (Tirunelveli) regions and the trade unions has come to an end with the signing of a new wage accord.

The accord, however, has been reached only for the three-year period commencing January 1, 2005.

For the period between January 2002 and December 2004, the dispute is under adjudication and before the Special Tribunal. Both - the Planters' Association and Unions - hope that this issue would be resolved soon

As per the new settlement, a consolidated wage of Rs 77 per day has been fixed for the daily rated workers. This is against the interim wage of Rs 72 paid since January 1, 2002.

The Chairman of the Anamallai Planters' Association, Mr C.D. Ganapathi, said the managements have agreed to a marginal increase of Re 0.15 to Rs 77.15 from July 1, 2005, and thereafter to a fixed quarterly dearness allowance of 30 paise per day from the quarter beginning October 1, 2005 and every subsequent quarter.

The signatories to the agreement further agreed to a modified incentive payment scheme for tea plucking by which the base outputs for earning the full daily wage could be increased substantially.

"This increase is compensated by higher incentive rates ranging from 40 paise to 85 paise per kg over the minimum base output. For shear harvesting, the base output has been enhanced by 5 kg over the levels fixed for hand plucking."

The present settlement covers about 26,000 workers.

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