Tamil Nadu: The cup of sorrows for Valparai tea workers overflows with a daily salary of Rs 445

Imagine spending eight hours a day, without a break, standing and picking tea leaves. For the Valparai plantation workers, this is routine, and their daily pay is a pitiful Rs 445. The ground reality for the workers has not altered, even if MPs and MLAs are giving out guarantees.

Too weak to support themselves, a number of families have moved to Tiruppur and Coimbatore in quest of employment. If estate officials had followed the updated pay settlement that the state government had announced in 2021, the workers’ circumstances would have been improved.

Sources claim that the chief minister announced the suggested salary of Rs 510, which was put out by the administration. Estate management, however, challenged the judgment in court and went on to negotiate a Rs 445 (dearness allowance included) agreement with labor unions. In Kerala, an estate laborer makes Rs 483.

Tea estate worker S Murugan at Villoni estate informed TNIE that he receives Rs 445 for working from 8 am to 5 pm. We just purchase rice from ration stores because of its skyrocketing cost. On the open market, the cost of pulses and oil is likewise quite expensive. A healthcare visit might cost anything between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. Our pay should be raised in line with the current state of price increases.

The majority of the employees TNIE dealt with told similar stories of hardship.

“We are living in run-down housing that is always in danger of being invaded by wild animals. No repairs or renovations were done, even after appealing to the estate officials, according to 56-year-old S Arumugam, who has lived and worked in Karumalai estate for the previous 40 years. He said, “Despite their fervent campaigns, none of the MLAs or MPs have promised to raise wages.” “They see us as nothing more than voting machines,” Arumugam said.

M Asha, from Pandalur in the Nilgiris, claims that her salary of Rs 11,500 is insufficient to support her family of three, despite working 26 days a month. She said, “I am dependent on the estates for my livelihood and I don’t know any other work.”

The CPM’s Valparai taluk secretary, V Paramasivam, said, “The workers have no basic facilities aside from meager wages.” Among the fundamental requirements that must be satisfied right away are a study center and a nursery for the offspring of female workers.”

“The salary would be around Rs 470 if the government directive is executed, with each worker receiving an extra Rs 30. This is really low even. The announcement has been legally embroiled for the previous three years, despite the rule that salary revisions should occur once every four years. “We anticipate a positive ruling from the supreme court,” said V Ameed, the Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Workers Union president. He claims that if their demand for Rs 650 to Rs 700 is fulfilled next year, estate workers in Tamil Nadu would get higher wages than those in Kerala.