Trade unions working in Kerala's plantation sector on Wednesday decided to call off the hunger strike the workers under them had been holding in Munnar after they and the plantation managements came to a settlement over the issue of hiking the minimum wages at a meeting of the Plantation labour Committee (PlC) which was mediated by the Government.
As per the settlement, tea estate workers' minimum daily wage will be hiked from the present Rs232 to Rs301 while the wage of workers in rubber plantations will go up to Rs381 from the present Rs317. The wage of cardamom workers will be hiked to Rs330 while that of the coffee estate workers will go up to Rs301. The TUs had demanded that the wages be hiked to Rs500.
Stating that they were not happy about the settlement reached at in the PlC meeting, leaders of Pombila Orumai, the collective of the woman tea estate workers of Kerala's tea country, Munnar, said they would take a decision on whether to continue or withdraw the strike they had begun on September 30 on Thursday.
As per the condition laid by the managements for hiking the tea estate workers' wage from Rs232 to Rs301, every worker will have to pluck 25 kilograms of tea leaves a day. When the wage was Rs232, every worker had to pluck 21 kilos of leaves. "The hike and the condition for it are unacceptable. But we are under immense pressure," said a leader of the Pombila Orumai.
A consensus among the delegates of the joint trade unions, plantation managements and the Government had come at the sixth meeting of the PlC since the strike started on September 28.