An Analysis of Low Wages for Sri Lanka Tea Plantation Workers

This research project investigates the critical issue of low wages faced by tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka. The study begins with a declaration of originality and acknowledgement of guidance, followed by an abstract summarizing the key findings: workers often receive wages below the Minimum Wage Act, experience discrimination, and lack adequate employee benefits. The introduction provides background information on the tea plantation industry, identifies the research problem, and outlines the research questions and objectives, which include analyzing national minimum wage provisions, assessing actual wage conditions, and determining the gap between standard and actual wages. The literature review, research methodology (including conceptual framework, research design, sampling, and data analysis), data analysis and interpretation, and conclusion and recommendations (including suggestions for further research) are detailed in subsequent chapters. The project includes tables and figures to present data on worker demographics, wages, and employer practices, along with an appendix containing a questionnaire. The research aims to understand the economic challenges faced by tea plantation workers and provide recommendations for wage improvements and worker welfare.

Sri Lanka tea
plantation workers
issue
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DECLARATION
I hereby made declaration that this research study entitled “Sri Lanka tea plantation tea
workers issue” was carried out fully by me from the perspective of better understanding of data
gathered. All the interpretation made of data gathered are based on proper concepts and
frameworks. Also, compliance has been made of all the ethical norms and standards related to
copy and paste. Furthermore, no data has been copied or published as it is directly. All data
gathered are taken from the different sources having reliability and authenticity in it which can
be used by other researchers as well in their studies.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank to my supervisor under whose guidance I completed my project.
Their guidance and support helps me in choosing the right path to gather detail related to my
topic “Sri Lanka tea plantation workers issue”. I am grateful to my friends and family who
guided me at every point in my research and also helps in providing appropriate resources.
Finally, I would like to thank to god for giving me this opportunity to determine the various issue
which the workers are facing in Sri Lanka.
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ABSTRACT
From the present report it has been assessed that number of workers employed in the
business of tea plantation areas are getting low wages as compared to the criteria specified in the
Minimum Wage Act. A lot of discrimination has been made among all the workers being
employed in the tea plantation work in different form such as on the basis of education,
knowledge, ability which has formed base for allocation of wages to them. Also, it has been
identified that no compliance has been made in respect of providing employee benefits to
workers working in the plantation areas. From the research conducted it has been evaluated
further that the government of Sri Lanka has not taken corrective measures for improving the
overall position and life of the workers working in the tea plantation business. Due to low wages,
most of the workers are not able to fulfil their basic needs and necessities of life which has
hampered their efficiency as well. It is thus required on the part of both the government of Sri
Lanka as well as employer to initiate procedures which works for the betterment of workers
which directly adds to business productivity and profitability and also helps workers in
improving their cost of living.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Research.............................................................................................1
1.2 Research Problem Identification......................................................................................1
1.3 Research Questions..........................................................................................................3
1.4 Research Objective...........................................................................................................3
1.5 Significance of the Study.................................................................................................4
1.6 Limitations of the study....................................................................................................4
1.7 Chapter Outline................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................6
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................14
3.1 Conceptual Framework of research................................................................................14
3.2 Operationalization..........................................................................................................15
3.3 Research Design.............................................................................................................15
Sampling...............................................................................................................................16
Sampling Design and Selection Procedure..........................................................................16
Sample Size..........................................................................................................................17
Data Analysis........................................................................................................................17
Ethical Consideration...........................................................................................................17
Reliability and Validity........................................................................................................18
Research Type......................................................................................................................18
Research Philosophy............................................................................................................19
Research Approach...............................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION....................................................21
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................................................39
5.1 & 5.2 Summary and conclusion of the study.................................................................39
5.3 Recommendation............................................................................................................40
5.4 Suggestions for further research.....................................................................................42
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................43
APPENDIX 1.................................................................................................................................47
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Questionnaire........................................................................................................................47
INDEX OF TABLES
Table 1: Age of workers................................................................................................................26
Table 2: Gender mostly employed in tea business.........................................................................28
Table 3: Family has worked as labour in tea plantation business..................................................30
Table 4: Salary as mentioned under the National Minimum wages..............................................31
Table 5: Factor determines the weak condition of workers in tea plantation business..................32
Table 6: Employer giving fair wages.............................................................................................34
Table 7: Difference between actual wage paid and amount determined.......................................35
Table 8: Gap between actual and wage ascertained by government.............................................36
Table 9: Basic reason for employer in respective of not giving the standard wages.....................38
Table 10: Government strategies in interest of workers ...............................................................39
Table 11: Company is discriminating workers in tea plantation business.....................................40
Table 12: Strict action by the government against company.........................................................42
LIST OF FIGURES
Illustration 1: Age of workers........................................................................................................26
Illustration 2: Gender mostly employed in tea business ...............................................................28
Illustration 3: Family has worked as labour in tea plantation business.........................................29
Illustration 4: Salary as mentioned under the National Minimum wages......................................30
Illustration 5: Factor determines the weak condition of workers in tea plantation business.........32
Illustration 6: Employer giving fair wages....................................................................................33
Illustration 7: Difference between actual wage paid and amount determined ..............................34
Illustration 8: Gap between actual and wage ascertained by government ....................................36
Illustration 9: Basic reason for employer in respective of not giving the standard wages ..........37
Illustration 10: Government strategies in interest of workers .....................................................38
Illustration 11: Company is discriminating workers in tea plantation business ..........................40
Illustration 12: Strict action by the government against company ...............................................41
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Topic: To investigate the issue of low wages to the tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Research
Lower labour wage is refers to be a major issue in each business segment, thus tea
plantation sector is a labour intensive industry and probably requires labour throughout so long,
therefore the registered labour in the wide scale tea estates has decrease from 497,995 in the year
of 1988 to 405,304 in 1990 and as of 2013 it has foster declined to around 242,266, which is
approximate 42 percent decline within the past two decades. The wage or income which a
worker or employee obtains through their work places is therefore, what promote them to attain a
fair standard of living. The wage mainly affects the living of people, so it is essential for society
or government to ensure a fair wage to every worker, in terms of poverty and starvation to
encourage the success and growth of human resource and also ensure justice without likely
threats to law and order may undermine economic growth or progress. The workers of tea
plantation are different from the workers of other industry.
The major labour force involved in tea plantation are mainly belongs from Tamil as in
this Tamil people from Indian origin are involved. The major growth of the country is based on
the development of tea plantation industry. The living of Majority of the population of India
Tamils are based on the tea plantation sector, thus most of the workers are reside at the near
estate area. The people are stated in rooms and rows near to the estate area and these are
generally called labour lines in the locality of Sri Lanka. As the growth of Sri Lanka is based on
the tea plantation industry, so the government has taken different actions regarding the
betterment of labours, thus government has taken initiate to increase the daily wage of labours,
therefore this could be benefiting for encouraging labours to be sustain over the tea plantation
industry. The strategic idea behind labour line is to enable quick labour preparation and to
protect the boundary of the estates, thus in this particular industry regular care is required. Lower
labour wage is a major issue which has direct impact over the economic condition of the country,
thus Sri Lanka has faces various issues in tea plantation industry due to the reason of lower
labour wage.
1.2 Research Problem Identification
Symptoms of the Problem
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As per the problem identified with the workers working in the tea plantation areas of Sri
Lanka, it has been evaluated that most of the workers are not getting proper or minimum wages
for work done by them. Because of lack of monitoring and tracking of business processes,
employer records by the regulatory bodies, agencies it has affected workers directly. Also, the
government of Sri Lanka has not adopted any strong and effective policies, frameworks related
to the betterment of workers and their life. Discrimination has been made by the employer
among different workers working in the tea plantation on the basis of knowledge, education,
skills, ability etc. Such factors are considered by the employer at the time of providing wages to
workers. Also, no overtime has been provided to worker working for more than working hours
specified and no better working conditions has been given by the employer for the benefit of
worker.
Justification of the problem
The main motive behind selecting this research topic is to get deep insight about the
current scenario of Sri Lanka tea plantation area and workers employed in it. It has helped the
researcher in identifying key main factors which has affected the life of workers including low
wages as provided by their employers. It helps in evaluating that workers of Sri Lanka are not
able to receive minimum wages as specified by the National Minimum Wages. Workers working
in the tea plantation areas are not provided wages as per the cost of living of their areas which
has directly affected their standard of living. Thus, it has also created negative impact on the
business productivity as well as profitability aspects.
Defining Research Problem
The basic agricultural business in Sri Lanka is tea farming and the main monetary
business source is this. Due to the political and environmental background of Sri Lanka had
reduced in the area of providing proper wage relates to its workers. Due to this many workers
have left this agriculture business and started new setup of businesses, the government has
decided to provide a better solution to regains and provide better solution towards this issue, the
government shall subsidised the rates of this particular rates and provide benefits to the
commodity of this formation of legal issue. Sri Lanka has always been very repulsive in nature
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and provide a better commodity in society. The plus this the file of uploading this commodity to
provide better services to greater extent.
1.3 Research Questions
An investigation question is refers as answerable research into a specific area. It also
refers as an initial stage in an investigation project. This part of investigation is interconnected
with the aim and objective of research as it is effective in assisting the work in right manner.
This section of research is effective in developing the area of literature review which supports
the study by development of theoretical area. The key questions of this particular investigation
are described as underneath:
Q.1 What are the provisions of national minimum wages associated with tea plantation workers
in Sri Lanka?
Q.2 What is the condition of tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka pertaining to actual wages?
Q.3 Does standard and actual wages earned by labour working under tea plantation in Sri Lanka
differ?
1.4 Research Objective
Investigation objectives are refers as the result sought through the investigator at the end
of the investigation process like what the purpose of execution of the study. Research objectives
are normally explicit in lay terms and are oriented towards right manner to attain basic aim.
Research objectives may be connected through a hypothesis or exploited as a argument of
purpose in a study that does not have a hypothesis. The key objective of the particular
investigation are associated as below:
 To analyse the provision of national minimum wages to tea plantation workers in Sri
Lanka.
 To identify the actual wage condition of tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka.
 To determine the gap in standard and actual wages earned by labour working under tea
plantation in Sri Lanka.
 To provide recommendation over betterment of wages payment to Sri Lankan tea
plantation labour.
Research Aim
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Research aim is refers as an essential aspect of the investigation area, thus it is effective
in providing a clear or concise statement in which the issue of research is mentioned. This
section of investigation is effective in assisting the work in right direction. The key aim of the
investigation is
“To investigate the issue of lower wages of tea plantation worker in light of National
minimum wages for workers Act, 2016: A study on Sri Lanka.”
1.5 Significance of the Study
With the help of this research project, it will be able to provide assistance to many
scholars as well as researcher in completing their own research studies in more significant and
effective manner. By undertaking this research study, researcher will be able to identify core
aspects as associated with the subject matter. Also, by providing proper data with effective
conclusive findings and interpretation it will provide better means for understanding the whole
research scenario to its end users. The main reason behind conducting such research study is to
evaluate the impact of low wages on the workers' life working in the business of Sri Lanka tea
plantation areas.
1.6 Limitations of the study
It relates with the shortcomings and the challenges that has been faced by the scholar
while conducting the study which have a direct impact on the findings of the research. It is the
essential for an investigator to critically assess for the limitation in order to strive for minimizing
scope of the limitation within the entire research process. Majorly researcher has faced time
constraint as enough time was not there with the scholar in relation to conduct the research with
a larger sample so he had made use of secondary data which helped him in gathering the
information at low cost and with very less time consumption (Greener, 2018). Researcher has
also made use of the existing research reports that has been prepared by other scholar which
enabled him in making the study within short period of time with drawing of the reliable
conclusion and the recommendations. An investigator also faced the financial constraint in
relation to lack of funds for implementing the primary collection of the data as it incurs huge cost
in framing a questionnaire and getting it filled by the respondents so secondary sources helped
the scholar in reducing the cost for collecting the information and the data. It act as the guide for
an investigator to make future inquiries.
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1.7 Chapter Outline
This chapter majorly deals with the issues of low wages to the tea plantation workers in
Sri Lanka. The purpose of seeking low wages is to hire employees to earn low wages so as to
attain a ‘decent’ or ‘dignified’ standard of living. Sri Lanka is the world’s second the largest tea
exporter and the whole industry is refers to be the main source of foreign exchange earnings, but
the workers who are working within the same industry are remained exploited and poor. Tea is
the basic need of each individual at global level and the consumption of tea is so high and it
increases at regular basis. Tea Plantation sector of Sri Lanka is considered to be the key
stakeholder in the recent scenario due to its social and economic importance. In the context of Sri
Lanka tea plantation industry is an effective aspect as the industry contributes to the economic
development of Sri Lanka in terms of foreign exchange earnings and employment generation.
Most of the tea garden workers are belongs from Tamils and are forced to live in deficient living
conditions.
They end up working in the plantation sector for the reason of low wages as the land
belonging to Tamils continues to be occupied by the military even after the end of the 26-year
long civil war in 2009. The government is widely focuses over implementing suitable law for
wages as the government is implementing law like wage for workers act 2016 that supports the
labour wage in effective manner. This project contains the study about the issue of lower wages
of tea plantation worker in light of National minimum wages for workers Act, 2016 in Sri Lanka.
In this aim and objectives are implemented to providing support to the work in the light of a
suitable issue on which the whole study will be taken place. In this literature review will be taken
place in developing appropriate theoretical framework which supports the work through analysis
of the perception of authors and writers. In this research methodology will also help in effective
manner through suitable selection of tools and methodologies, along with this data analysis will
execute to analyse the information in effective manner. Conclusion and recommendation will be
developed to providing suitable finding over the study and recommendation will be given that
are effective in making suitable improvements.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature reviews is mainly considered to be the summary of the research and also carry
the findings which is given by various authors regarding the selected topic. It indicates that
various judgement and decision are to be gathered in context of review of the authors and it helps
in getting the current knowledge with the existing reviews (Priyanath and et.al., 2018). In this
dissertation, the reviews is conducted to identify the various factors which affecting the interest
of labour in engaging their business through tea plantation. As Sri Lanka is the boom of tea
plantation and thus various aspects are to be gathered which helps in bringing new aspects in the
research study.
Theme 1: Provision of national minimum wages to tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka
According to Jegathesan (2018) stated that the workers are the important aspects of the
country and through their hard work and dedication they increase the monetary benefits in
country. In such case the demand of the workers are high but due to fewer wages they are
demotivated to commit such work. As the main reason of committing this work is to get
adequate payment to manage their livelihood for longer time period. By viewing the condition of
the workers in tea plantation project, government had enhanced various norms through which
they can develop more interest of workers towards achieving goals. Chowdhury (2017) states
that due to the procedure related to getting the low wages, workers had to struggle more to
overcome from the issue which they are facing to make frequency in their normal routine work.
Sri Lanka is the second largest exporter of tea plantation and also it is identifies that most of the
workers engages their activities through planting more tea plants. Thus, to improve the condition
of workers, government had to play the major role in protecting their rights and security towards
the work. In such case various norms are to be provided under the National minimum wages act
2016, to provide more monetary benefits to the workers to engage their interests in planting more
tea plants.
Mansingh and John (2016) criticised that minimum wages are assigned to the workers
who engaged their occupation in tea plantation business. Thus, it results in bringing more
increase in business. But sometimes various workers take the wrong advantages of the
government norms which affects the workers interests. Thus, government norms are fixed for all
the workers and also the company who appointed the workers to commit such task had to follow
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