Tea tussle

Tuesday, 13 March 2012 01:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Cheranka Mendis

Due to trade union ‘go slow,’ 15,000 kilograms of tea valued at Rs. 50 million have been held back at the Bogawantalawa Tea Estates Plc despite authorities saying the situation is under control.

Credible sources from Bogawantalawa Tea Estate however deny the assertion that the situation is under control, claiming that the delay is causing apprehension among exporters who have already purchased the tea at the Colombo tea auction.

With a four-week delay already, the Bogawantalawa Tea Estate officials fear the cancellation of orders in the event the situation is not corrected soon. The officials have requested protection to carry out the loading and transportation of the 150,000 kgs to Colombo from the Ministry of Defence and the Police. However, they have no received any response so far, sources admitted.

The source also noted that out of 11 factories, produce have been moved in only three while in others, the workers are preventing the movement of tea by refusing to load the lorries.

“We are going through a ‘go slow’ at the moment. We believe the situation has occurred with trade unions instigation, ordering workers to work against the company.”

The situation had prevailed unchanged since 22 February despite the company lodging complaints with the Police, Plantation Ministry, Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Defence Secretary. “If this is not brought under control, we will be in a severe fix soon. There will be no funds from the sale and we will be unable to manage the estates.”

The source also asserted that the Police agreed to “try something” to enable the dispatching of the tea produce Monday evening. “However, we have not received any confirmation. All this tea has been sold at auction. It is not a matter of dispatching them.

There is a mutual understanding between the buyers and us that a two-week delay or three-week delay at the most is acceptable. More than that is problematic. We fear this could lead to cancellation of contracts.”

The cause of the ‘go slow’ was the company’s decision to increase the norm (amount of kilos a tea plucker has to pluck per day) from 13 to 14 kgs by two kilograms. “Our company has the lowest norm in the business. The other estates maintain 18 to 20 kgs per day. The two kg increase would mean plucking 15 to 16 kgs, which is still less than the usual,” sources expressed. “The decision was taken after informing the workers. As such the probability of this being a trade union activity is high.”

The workers work on a daily wage of Rs. 515.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Tea Board Director General H.D. Hemarathne stated that the “issues are currently being addressed”.

Hemarathne nonetheless admitted: “They have reported to the Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa about providing protection for transportation.”

He assured that the market would not be directly impacted due to the prevailing situation.