Unlocking wealth in tea sector

Advocata champions revenue sharing and homeownership over minimum wage

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Estate workers deserve a decent wage, fair treatment, and real opportunities for upward mobility

ADVOCATA Institute is urging the withdrawal of the Government’s recent Budget proposal to allocate Rs. 5 billion to raise the minimum wages of estate workers and provide an additional attendance incentive.

Advocata reiterates that plantation workers are among Sri Lanka’s most historically and systematically marginalised communities. They deserve higher earnings, economic dignity, and a path to long-term empowerment, there is no ambiguity about this. For generations, this community has carried the weight of low mobility, restricted opportunities, and limited bargaining power, despite being central to one of Sri Lanka’s proudest export industries. The issue at hand is not whether wages should rise, but how these increases are structured, and whether the burden should fall on taxpayers to fund private sector payrolls.

Sri Lanka’s tea industry largely follows an attendance based minimum wage model for its estate workers, which has repeatedly led to lower productivity and an increased cost of production compared to other tea producing countries.

The minimum wage for tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka was already nearly twice that of Indian tea workers before the recent increase, with additional non-cash benefits totalling around Rs. 750 a working day. However, the plucking average in Sri Lanka (18 kg) is nearly half of that in India and one third of that in Kenya.