 "Kannan Devan Hills says workers' protest costs it Rs 30 cr")
Responding to queries on the ongoing strike by workers in the plantation and its impact on the company, KDHPL officials said that the company had lost 17 days to the strike and 22 days when workers decided to go slow with production. The strike by women workers under the name Pembilai Orumai (Women's unity), which kept the trade unions, political parties completely and men to an extend, was started in KDHPL, which was then taken up by the trade unions and other plantations.
While the workers in KDHPL resumed job after the management agreed to give 20 per cent bonus, as against the previous offer of 10 per cent, the workers has went for a go-slow protest, plucking only the 21 kg tea leaves which would provide them the basic salary of Rs 232 a day, seeking hike in wages. The trade unions also went for protest seeking wage hike to Rs 500 per day.
Commenting on the days lost and the loss in terms of production, Mohan C Varghese, general manager (Tea Manufacture), KDHPL said, "The disruptions in work due to the strike and go-slow and the additional payment of ex-gratia, will adversely affect the performance of the company for the present season (2015/2016) and beyond."
For the year ended on March 31, 2015, the profit after taxes was Rs 5.02 crore as against Rs 15.55 crore in the previous year, a drop of 68 per cent compared to the previous year which was mainly because of the sharp drop in tea prices last year, said the company in an earlier announcement.
In view of the poor profits, the statutory bonus payable for the year was the minimum bonus of 8.33 per cent. However, the Company had voluntarily and as a matter of goodwill, added another 1.67 per cent to the Statutory Bonus and declared a bonus of 10 per cent on August 24, 2015. The company tried to distribute this bonus on August 25, however majority of the workers did not accept it as their demand was 20 per cent. From August 26 onwards, several divisions in the company resorted to "Go Slow" in job.
While there were allegations that the crisis in the plantation was created because the company agreed to the bonus hike the women workers demanded, the company denied the allegation. The workers agitation experienced in Munnar was in unprecedented scale and the decision to increase the bonus was taken by the company on the insistence of Oommen Chandy, Chief Minister of the State, which helped defuse a situation that would otherwise have had repercussions all over the state, said the company.
Refuting the allegation of the section of workers that the company does not offer proper healthcare and educational facilties to the workers, the company said that it has 24 estate dispensaries, nine garden hospitals, 22 company doctors and one group general hospital. It also has 49 primary schools, of which 15 are run by the company itself and reservation for the children of workers at the entry level in a CBSE School run by the company.
The immediate issues of concern to the company also include rising cost of production due to increase in the cost of agrochemicals, fertilizers, electriciy, fuel, packing materials, etc., steep fall in tea prices in South India due to global over-supply, increasing welfare costs and aging tea bushes resulting in stagnating yields.
KDHPL has seven tea gardens covering an area of 24,000 hectares, 16 tea manufacturing units with an annual production of 22 Million Kilograms of tea and close to 12,000 employees, according to the company. It is also the first tea plantation to implement a formalised participatory management structure that fosters an employee-centric environment. The model involves a large number of employees from all categories to discuss all matters of importance and suggest improvements for the betterment of the organisation, it added.
