Reasons for Strikes in Plantation Industry

SAARJ Journal on Banking & Insurance Research, 2018

4th International …, 2010

This paper examines idiosyncrasies of tea plantation culture and politics in relation to Sri Lankan national and popular cultural typologies, with special reference to female tea plantation workers. Tea production in Sri Lanka is heavily based on manual labour, and it is the largest industry that provides accommodation for employees and their families. In this paper, it is argued that politico-cultural production relations have dominated labour productivity in tea plantations. Ways in which female workers have been marginalised, through patriarchal politics, ethnicity, religion, education, elitism, and employment are explained. This culture of the plantation community operates negatively with respect to the management agenda. It is also argued that social capital development in tea plantations is important not only for productivity improvement, but also for reasons of political and social obligation for the nation, because migrant plantation workers have been working and living in plantations over 150 years. Cultural analysis and the worldviews of South Asians: Historical and cultural foundations Social and cultural data consists of measurements of the worldviews or systems of mental constructions that people use to interpret and respond to the world around them. This sense-making process generates the values and behaviours of people. This section describes the context of history and religion to provide an in-depth understanding of the culture of Sri Lanka. Insight into the social foundations of Sri Lanka, culture is esse ntial to understand the commonalties and unique features of Sri Lankan socio-cultural context especially in tea plantations in Sri Lanka. Culture is an extremely broad concept and very difficult to define. However, it touches and alters every aspects human life. In general, culture refers to the distinctive way of life of a particular group of people (El Kahal 2001). Culture also shapes people's values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavioural patterns (Terpestra & David 1985). Cultures are an outcome of the interplay between religious, historical, political, social and economic forces. Culture consists of a worldview that distinguishes the citizens of a country and makes them indubitably the nationals of a particular state (Gupta et al. 2002). It is therefore crucial for business managers, and policy makers to understand fully not only how people in different cultural settings behave but why they behave in the way they do. First I trace the early history of this region to provide an understanding of its evolution and next I summarise the influence of religious ideologies and cultural practices. The earliest historical book is on Sri Lanka known as the Mahawamsa (Mahanama et al. 1958). Sri Lanka's first settlers were the nomadic Veddahs. Legend relates them to the Yakkhas, demons conquered by the Sinhalese around the 5th or 6th century BC. A number of Sinhalese kingdoms, including Anu radhapura in the north, took root across the island during the 4th century BC. Buddhism was introduced by Mahinda, son of the Indian Mauryan emperor Ashoka, in the 3rd century BC, and it quickly became the established religion and

Observations indicate that, the majority of both private and public sector organizations in Sri Lanka have trade unions and a higher percentage of the workforce has some form of trade union membership. Majority of the trade unions in these organizations are branches of main trade unions affiliated to leading political parties. As it is found in this study on reasons for unionization and impact of their politicalization, a multiplicity of trade unions is in operation in the selected state organizations. This has been mainly due to people having various motives to fulfil through trade unions and in addition due to their affiliation to achieve objectives of political parties. Situations prevailing in the selected organizations are not for the wider interests of the workers and are also harmful in considering the objectives of the trade union movement in general. This has created a negative feeling among the workers about the trade unions and it is implied when looking at their reasons ...

2013

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Plantation production began in Sri Lanka in the early 19th century under British colonial rule, when the government provided financial incentives and infrastructural support for the commercialisation and export of agricultural crops in line with promoting laissez-faire capitalism. Motivated by the possibility of making high profits, British entrepreneurs, including several officials, took up the large-scale cultivation of initially coffee, and then subsequently, tea, rubber and coconut. Keen to minimise their costs of labour, the planters recruited workers from neighbouring districts of the Madras Presidency in south India where there were large numbers badly affected by the widespread famine and indebtedness in the region. The spread of plantation production in the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in a more permanent workforce, constituting the single largest and organised segment of the working class in the country. While women formed a small proportio...

A comparative study of classification methods applied on Asian cuisines ingredients 15

The aim of this exploratory study is to capture the current status of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) awareness, commitment and practices level of tea manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka and assessing the socioeconomic impact of company CSR on employees and smallholders. The study provides an overview of company CSR practices as well as of employee and smallholder experiences and perceptions of CSR practices of tea manufacturing companies. The research study is based on Kandy district and three perspectives factory owners, employees and smallholders were used in exploring the CSR level and its socioeconomic impact. To achieve the research objectives tea manufacturing company’s CSR practices are studied in three domains: CSR to employees, smallholders and environment. There is appositive relationship between tea manufacturing company CSR level and the socioeconomic condition of employee and the smallholders. The CSR awareness among factory owners, employees and smallholders are not in satisfactory level and should be improved. When it consider about the overall situation, current CSR practices of tea manufacturing companies have not made a positive impact on socioeconomic development of employees and smallholders. Satisfying all stakeholders of the company, the many socio-economic benefits can be achieved and, that contribute to the sustainable development. Tea manufacturing companies should consider CSR strategies that are in the interest of all stakeholders and relevant to the business.

Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management, 2013

2009

Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Sri Lanka, 2024

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Sri Lanka offers a comprehensive survey of issues facing the island country and an overview delineating some key moments in the country’s contemporary polity, economy, and sociality. This book outlines aspects and influences foundational to understanding a country defined by its economic and political turmoil, and rift with public distrust in today’s shifting geopolitics. Chapters by various established scholars highlight this book’s pivotal contribution in situating Sri Lanka’s turmoil and deprivation in this current conjuncture. The handbook is structured in seven parts: Nations and Nationalism Politics, State and Institutions Economy and Political Economy Work and Life Environment and Environmental Politics Society, Social Systems, and Culture Moment of Flux, Looking Ahead Each part includes on average six chapters covering the social sciences and humanities to survey emerging and cutting-edge areas of the study of Sri Lanka. Multi-disciplinary in focus, the book also includes an introductory section and concluding section, which creates the space and platform for senior, mid-ranking, and junior academics to engage in dynamic conversation with each other about contemporary Sri Lanka. Including scholarship from Sri Lankan experts, the handbook creates academic output, which chimes with broader calls in academia on decolonising the academic landscape. An important reference work, this handbook will be of interest to scholars and students from wideranging academic disciplines and a focus on Sri Lanka, Asian and South Asian studies, sociology, environmental politics, development, labour, management, political economy and anthropology.

2015

Production of tea (over 51 per cent of the total tea in the country and 13 per cent of the global tea production) has been one of the strongest economic growth contributors of Assam. Tea is one of the major foreign exchange goods for the state and the country with around 64,000 small tea estates spread over fourteen districts. The annual turnover of this industry in Assam is INR 50 billion and provides employment to a large section of people in the country (over 1,000 million workers). Historical backdrop of the growth of Tea Industry in Assam reveals an evolving dynamics of industrial relations both from its structural and operational perspectives. Though the apparent monopoly of upper class people to dominate the labourers of the tea estates has been diluted in the modern Indian scenario, the flavor of the class struggle and gender discrimination still persists in a subtle yet distinct way. Industrial unrest in the tea estates is on the rise and while the Adivasi workers are striv...