THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government on Monday put its foot down forcing the hesitant plantation owners to implement the wage hike for tea, rubber and cardamom plantation workers decided on October 15.
After the nearly four hour long Plantation Labour Committee (PLC) meeting at the secretariat, Labour Minster Shibu Baby John disclosed that the plantation owners have agreed to provide the hiked wages from November salary.
“On Sunday the Association of Planters Kerala had made a statement that the agreement arrived in the presence of chief minister would not be implemented. So we decided today to first implement the agreement,” he said.
The Minister said that the plantation owners have agreed to implement the salary hike from November. As per October the hiked daily wages are Rs 301 for tea and coffee plantation workers, Rs 330 for cardamom and Rs 381 for rubber plantation workers.
The minister said that the decision on giving retrospective effect to the wage hike would be taken after holding discussions with all sections.
“We do understand that the plantation sector is also going through crisis and there is a crash in the prices. But all these issues would be tae up later. In today’s meeting the priority was to implement the agreement decided in the presence of the chief minister,” he added. The APK had sought to back out from the previous agreement stating that it was made in view of the local bodies poll.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
