What I am asking in my letter is to correct this proposal. In that letter, I say that the plantation worker’s daily wage should be increased to 1,700 or 2,000 rupees. Are you against that? I am also asking whether this payment is meant only for the workers in 22 private companies who work more than 55 selected days. If you look at it properly, only a few such people even exist — mainly security guards, cooks, and a few factory workers. It should not be only for workers who work 25 days; others must also receive it.
Small and medium-scale estates contribute 75% to this country’s tea economy. So they should not be excluded. They also must be paid. Is that wrong?
I saw back then, when Anura Kumara Dissanayake was in the Opposition, he said that estates that don’t pay the 1,700 rupees should be taken over by the government. What I asked here is whether this payment is compatible with the 2024 State Finance Management Act No. 46. The Attorney General says that this Act is supreme. But the Auditor General still has not given me an answer.
I say, Hon. Deputy Speaker, that there are 480,000 plantation workers in the country. Inside the 21 profitable plantation companies, there are 101,000 workers. Out of them, those who work 25 days are fewer than 50,000 — about 20,000. Even if we assume the number is 20,000, that means 460,000 people are excluded from receiving this. Those people are suffering from malnutrition; the roofs of their houses leak, and when it rains, water drips through the tin sheets. They put rope lights on the floor to keep away animals. I have seen this with my own eyes, experienced it myself. These people are not included in that 20,000. So we must ensure justice for all of them. Unequal treatment of equals is happening here. That is why I said a method must be created to give this to everyone.
The expense for this comes from the Consolidated Fund. That must be lawful. If not, I ask the Auditor General whether the Secretary of the Ministry of Plantation Industries, the Director General of the Budget Department, and the heads of the plantation companies who authorize this will be sent to jail or not. Such things have happened before. Will that happen here or not? If not, and if the Auditor General says it’s acceptable, then let us pay. In COPE, we always see the Auditor General raising issues based on this State Finance Management Act. If not, there is nothing left for him to question inside COPE.
I also ask the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption: Will this become a bribery offense or not? If they say it won’t, then let us pay — not 1,700, but 2,000. And not only for those who work 25 days, but for all these plantation workers. Even Rohini Wijeratne of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya agrees with this.
This must be organized properly. If we try to exploit the real problems of plantation workers for political gain by taking photos and putting them out to show off, I think that is petty politics. So yesterday, today, and tomorrow, I stand for these plantation workers. Not for parades or for photo opportunities. Even if I am killed on the street, until these people get a proper system, I will continue my struggle. I stand by my position. Because the people who face malnutrition, who live under leaking roofs, who have damp earth floors — these are not the workers of those twenty-one major companies.”
Chanaka Liyanage
