Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-01-25

Increasing the Daily Wage of Plantation Sector Workers

- In accordance with the provisions in the ''Plantation Workers' Wages Collective Agreement 2019 – 2021'', the Plantation sector employees are entitled for a daily wage of Rs.750/- including a Fixed Price Allowance of Rs.50/- and for an another allowance called ''Over kilo rate'' when exceeding the amount of kilos related to the productivity.

It was proposed to provide a daily wage of Rs.1,000/- to the Plantation sector through the budget proposals presented in Parliament in November, 2020. Even though several deliberations have been conducted with the signatories to the ''Plantation Workers' Wages Collective Agreement 2019 – 2021'' for the implementation of the said proposal, the Employers' Federation of Ceylon representing the Planters' Association which is one party to the said Collective Agreement, has proposed to increase the daily wage up to Rs.920/-. Taking these matters into consideration, the proposal made by the Minister of Labour, to take necessary steps enabling the increase of the daily wage of the Plantation sector workers up to Rs.1,000/- through the Wages Board, for the implementation of the said budget proposal, was approved by the Cabinet.