Tea Plantation Labour in India recommended by the government every year. They pay at the rate of Rs. 24.438 per day for an adult and Rs. 15.70 per day for an adolescent;, (iii) A third type of wage pattern is followed by the TANTEA. Since Cinchona was taken over by the TANTEA and the estate was not well established for quite some time they had been following the minimum wages pattern. But vociferous protests from the workers forced the TANTEA to negotiate with the employees and a wage settlement was reached in August 1994 which is valid upto 30 September 1996. As per the agreement the TANTEA workers are now paid at the rate of Rs. 36.90 per day for an adult and Rs 23.50 per day for an adolescent. The tea plantations are covered under the APA agreement, but the coffee estates follow the Minimum Wages Act. Apart from the cash wage the workers of all categories are entitled to the following bhenefits: 1. Every permanent as well as temporary worker is given 10 kg. of rice per week at the rate of Rs. 7.80 a kg, which the management contends to be at a subsidised rate but the workers feel they are charged the market rate. The cost of the rice is recovered from the workers wages at the end of the month. The benefit is only for the estates under the APA and the rice supplied is called the APA rice, Every permanent worker is entitled to 250 gms. of tea dust every fnonth at a subsidized cost of Rs. 40 per kilogramme. The worker 1s supplied with one kilogramme of tea dust once in four months. * The cost is recovered from the wages. Such a benefit is not extended to the workers in the ‘coffee estates. The Vyorkers in the field both permanent and temporary are supplied with one woollen rug every year free of cost. Apart from the rug, all the workers are given an allowance of Rs 120 once in two years for purchase of a rug. As against Rs. 120 104 o Tea Plantation Labour in Tamil Nadu in other estates TANTEA pays Rs. 110 as rug allowance. Earlier the company was supplying this rug also. But the workers were not satisfied with the quality of rug and hence requested the managements to pay them the amount so that they could buy better quality rug by bearing the additional cost involved. Workers in the field are given one cup of tea in the morning and another in the evening free of cost. Every factory provides a canteen to its workers. However, the canteens are said to be expensive as they are leased to private caterers. Workers in the factory are supplied with an umbrella every year free of cost. The uniformed category of workers like the sweepers, ward-boys, ward-girls, and office peons are supplied with two sets of uniform every year, The workers employed in the spraying of pesticide(spraying workers) are paid an additional Rs. 1.60 per day. They are also permitted to leave the field once their taskis over. The additional payment for the person is as compensation to the worker for exposing him to health hazard the pesticide may cause him. 10. The workers involved in the pruning of the plants(pruners) are also paid Rs. 1.75(per day) more and they are also permitted to leave the field once the task is over. Pruning is considered to be a hard task and hence the additional wage and permission to leave on completion of the task is permitted. A worker is expected to prune 200 plants a day. This target varies from plantation to . plantation. But the number ranges from 200 to 240. 11, A minimum target in plucking green leaf is fixed according to the probable base output per hectare. 105