By Fakir Balaji
Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Sep 15 (IANS) A bill to amend the Plantation Labour Act, 1951 has been introduced in Parliament, a senior official said Tuesday.

“The proposed amendments relate to change in the definition of employer, family and worker,” Tea Board deputy chairperson Roshini Sen said at the 116th annual conference of the United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI) here.

Quoting from the address of Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, who could not be present on the occasion, Sen said the bill also included safety precautions to be taken by planters for storage, utilisation and handling of agro-chemicals.

“As safety and health of the labour, especially women, employed in plantation estates are paramount, preventive steps have to be mandated for using agro-chemicals like insecticides and herbicides,” Sen told about 800 planters participating in the two-day event.

The bill also proposes to regulate employment of women and children below 14 years for handling hazardous chemicals in plantations.

Officiating as chief guest at the conference in the absence of the minister, Sen expressed concern over the impact of global recession on the export performance of the plantation sector.

“Competition from China, Sri Lanka, Kenya and other countries pose a challenge to the Indian plantation sector due to high cost of production arising out of higher wages, lower productivity and ageing of tea and coffee bushes and rubber plants,” Sen said.

Favouring special status to the plantation sector for competing with other countries in global and domestic markets, Sen said the state governments should not forget the contribution of planters in terms of employment-generation, export revenues and creating India brand the world over in coffee, tea and spices.

“The government should implement the S.N. Menon committee report, which recommended financial support from the Centre and states to bear 50 percent of the social costs incurred by planters for the welfare of their workforce,” Sen noted.

At the same time, Sen urged the planters to invest in research and technology to improve the quality and quantity of their crops to increase their share in the domestic and international markets.

“As the sector has emerged out of a prolonged recessionary cycle, growers should invest in re-plantation and rejuvenation of ageing bushes or plants to face competition set to intensify with the advent of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) India signed with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Aug 13,” Sen reiterated.

The FTA comes into force from January 1, 2010.

Earlier, tea, coffee, rubber and spice planters in South India Tuesday called for drastic amendments to the various acts pertaining to land, labour and wages so that they could be globally competitive.

“There is an urgent need to overhaul the Plantations Act, the Land Reforms Act and the Minimum Wages Act to become competitive in a global market,” UPASI president D.P. Maheshwari said.

In his presidential address at the 116th annual conference of UPASI here, Maheshwari said the high cost of production was a disadvantage to the plantation sector due to various statutory social costs unlike in other producing countries.

“As tea, coffee, rubber and spices are governed by the central plantation acts, the central government should regulate the working conditions including wages by divesting the state governments of the statutory powers exercised by them arbitrarily,” Maheshwari said.

Alternatively, the advice of the central government should be made binding on state governments by amending the acts.

Seeking an early meeting of central and state governments with the plantation associations to discuss the issues and evolve a consensus, Maheshwari said the subsidy given to small farmers for re-plantation should be extended to corporates, as they play a vital role in the sector employing more workers and paying higher wages.

Terming the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) India signed Aug 13 with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a bolt from the blue to the plantation sector, the president said the pact would have a catastrophic effect on the sector, especially in southern India where wages and production cost are higher than in the competing countries.