The Court of Appeal yesterday (9) dismissed the petition filed by the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) to revoke the decision taken by the Wages Board of the Department of Labour to increase the minimum daily wage of estate workers to Rs. 1,000.
Accordingly, the written application filed by the EFC in March 2021, requesting the court to quash the daily wage of Rs. 1,000 has been dismissed on the grounds that the Ministry of Labour has followed the proper procedures in instating the rule through the summoning of the Wages Board, said Commissioner General (CG) of Labour Prabath Chandrakeerthi, while speaking to The Morning yesterday.
“The appeal by the regional plantation companies (RPCs) to revoke the decision to pay plantation workers a minimum wage of Rs. 1,000 has been dismissed by the Court owing to the fact that the Department has followed the proper procedure in establishing the rule despite what the RPCs claimed,” said Chandrakeerthi.
Furthermore, he stated that this is applicable to only tea and rubber plantation workers, as determined before.
“This can be considered as a victory for the plantation workers in the country, in which the Department is delighted to have been of assistance,” he stated further.
Additionally, MP Jeevan Thondaman, who is attached to the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, also made a post on Twitter regarding the favourable verdict of the case, thanking the attorneys who appeared on behalf of the plantation workers.
“This is not a permanent solution. The RPCs must come to the table and discuss a collective agreement or an alternative wage model; if not we will be forced to go to the wages board demanding a fair daily wage for the workers. When we were criticised for the Rs. 1,000 not being given to the workers, the unions took the brunt of it. We remained silent as we did not want to comment on an ongoing case. After 17 long months, we have received a favourable verdict (sic),” he said.