COIMBATORE: The State government has revised minimum wage for tea estate workers to Rs 425.40 from Rs 345. While trade unions welcomed the decision, planters are miffed and have decided to place their objection before the government. Wages are revised once in four years.
Sources said both sides bargained hard during the two-month long negotiations as the planters did not agree to pay Rs 430 per shift. After four rounds of talks, the government fixed Rs 425.40 as wages per shift.
P Paramasivam, general secretary of Coimbatore district estate workers and officers association said, “We demanded Rs 600, but planters offered Rs 380. Eventually we settled for Rs 430.” A member of Planters Association of Tamil Nadu, on condition of anonymity, said that they would not accept the rate.
There are around 1.5 lakh acres of tea and coffee plantations in Tamil Nadu, employing one lakh workers.