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Estate workers 'to continue protest' | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Trade unions representing Sri Lanka's estate workers have decided to continue their non -cooperation protest as employers have rejected their demands. K Velayudan, General Secretary of Lanka National Estate Workers' Union (LNEWU), said after the talks that the employers offered to pay Rs. 360 per day. The trade unions are demanding to increase the daily wages, currently about Rs. 260, to Rs. 500. "We pointed out the offer is too small in view of current cost of living and rejected the offer," he told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya. As the employers have insisted on the offer of Rs. 360, he said, the unions decided to carry out with their work to rule protest. The protest is not a general strike. The workers are preventing the produced tea been taken out of tea factories though they continue with their routine duties of plucking and processing. Mr. Velayudan said the trade unions will take a decision on further action on Tuesday. The main tea traders' association has warned that both production and exports will be affected. Drought has severely affected recent tea crops and livelihoods here - and poverty-stricken workers are in the mood to take a stand. | LOCAL LINKS  'Exhume' child workers' bodies25 August, 2009 | Sandeshaya Lanka land 'becoming scarcer'05 July, 2009 | Sandeshaya "Stand Up, Speak Out" to fight poverty17 October, 2007 | Sandeshaya EXTERNAL LINKS The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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