Menaha Kandasamy, general secretary of the Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union, addressed a number of meetings on plantation workers’ struggles during her recent visit. The union represents workers in Sri Lanka’s tea and rubber plantations.
She told a Refugee Action Collective meeting on July 21 that plantation workers have undergone “200 years of exploitation”. They work more than 10 hours a day in unsafe conditions, with no water to drink. Most live in overcrowded, substandard housing, known as “line rooms”, and paid $6.75 a day. Their wages can be cut if the amount of tea picked is below the “norm”.
Most tea plantation workers are women and the majority are Tamil-speaking descendants of workers brought from south India during the British colonial period. However, the union works with people from all communities.
Kandasamy said that plantation workers are kept isolated from the rest of Sri Lanka, describing it as a “captive labor system”. She said the plantation workers are “not considered human”.
While this system is oppressive, workers do have some rights; they have permanent employment, a pension scheme and maternity leave. They have injury compensation which, Kandasamy said, is inadequate, but better than nothing. They also have a union to represent them.
The tea companies are now pushing for casualisation, which would lead to the workers’ limited rights being eradicated.
The union has argued in court that the casualisation plan is illegal. The union won the case, but the employers are now appealing to a higher court.
The union has also asked the Sri Lankan government to take action to block the casualisation plan.
Kandasamy said that “the labor minister seems interested” and while nothing has been done so far it is “too early to say” whether the government will take action.
Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power government was elected in March last year. Kandasamy said it has been good on combating corruption, but is yet to take action to protect workers’ rights.