• Plantation and Labour Ministries to present facts on International  competition behind allegations  

The Government has rejected the findings of Amnesty International’s latest report, Abandoned by the State, trapped in private estates: Rights abuses against Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamil Tea Workers, maintaining that its allegations of human rights and labour violations against estate workers are inaccurate. Replying to a question raised by Opposition Parliamentarian, Nizam Kariapper in Parliament yesterday (9), Plantation and Community Infrastructure Minister Samantha Vidyarathna said, “The Government’s view is that the matters raised by the international human rights organization are not correct. We will present the relevant facts in due course. The Labour Ministry and the Plantation Ministry have already held joint discussions to formulate the Government’s response and will continue those discussions.”He also suggested that international competition in the plantation crop sector should be taken into account when assessing such allegations. “There is international competition relating to our plantation crops and various issues are being raised globally in relation to these commercial crops. Since this has implications for the livelihoods of our people and the country’s economy, it must be managed carefully,” he said.

Speaking further, Vidyarathna said the Government had taken several measures to improve the living standards of estate workers, including a ‘historic wage increase’. He said that estate workers had received a daily wage increase of Rs 400 under the present Government’s policies. “Of that, the Government provides Rs 200 towards their livelihood support, with plantation companies contributing the remaining Rs 200.”

He also said that the Government is expediting a housing and land ownership program for estate workers with assistance from the Indian Government. “When the present administration assumed office, plans were in place to provide families living in line rooms with the ownership of seven-perch land plots,  the implementation had been limited. The Government is now increasing the allocation to 10 perches and accelerating the construction of the houses.”

Providing details of the industry’s structure, Vidyarathna said that there are 398 estates under privatised regional plantation companies, comprising 204 estates leased by the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB) and 194 leased by the State Plantations Corporation (SPC). In addition, he added that three State-owned plantation Companies – the Halawatha Plantations Company, the Elkaduwa Plantations Company and the Kurunegala Plantations Company – manage a total of 32 estates. Of these, 22 have been provided by the JEDB and 10 by the SPC. He said that the SPC directly retains 16 estates and the JEDB has 17 estates under its management.

He also provided employment figures for the sector, stating that regional plantation companies employ 76,044 permanent workers and 18,955 temporary workers. The JEDB has 2,738 permanent workers, while the SPC employs 1,524 permanent and 573 temporary estate workers.

The issue was raised against the backdrop of a recent Amnesty International report, which alleged that Malaiyaha Tamil workers employed on private tea estates and smallholdings in Sri Lanka face abuses that meet many of the International Labour Organisation’s indicators of forced labour. According to the report, workers in the Southern Province had experienced intimidation and threats, physical violence and harassment, debt bondage, restrictions on movement, and poor working and living conditions. Amnesty International also alleged that the State had failed to adequately protect workers’ rights to social security, unionisation and access to justice, and called for the stronger enforcement of labour protections and safeguards for plantation workers.