Sri Lankan tea plantation workers receive some of the lowest wages of any workers in the world, for hard labour in hazardous conditions. Last week workers at the Hairpark Estate in Hunnasgiriya began a protest against their estate being deliberately run down by the government owned Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation. Workers complain that they are given only 7 to 12 days work a month, which does not give them a living wage. They demand that the government abandon plans to privatise the plantation. The workers are members of the Red Flag Union, which is demanding meaningful negotiation, no privatisation, 25 work days a month, and a grant of 2 acres of estate land to each plantation family.
Sri Lankan tea plantation workers receive some of the lowest wages of any workers in the world, for hard labour in hazardous conditions. Last week workers at the Hairpark Estate in Hunnasgiriya began a protest against their estate being deliberately run down by the government owned Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation. Workers complain that they are given only 7 to 12 days work a month, which does not give them a living wage. They demand that the government abandon plans to privatise the plantation. The workers are members of the Red Flag Union, which is demanding meaningful negotiation, no privatisation, 25 work days a month, and a grant of 2 acres of estate land to each plantation family.
