Financial Times

Manpower threat in plantations
The vital plantations industry, which remains the main net foreign exchange earner, could face a crippling shortage of skilled manpower at both management and field levels as an alarming exodus of planters and workers continues unabated.

Efforts by regional plantations companies (RPCs) to stem the exodus, likely to result in a serious shortage of planters and workers, and cope with the twin threat have so far not been effective enough. Senior planters have said that the answer lies in a change in management attitudes as well as mechanisation and adoption of novel concepts like mobile work forces and out growers.

All is not lost however, as those companies with a good reputation are able to attract and retain talented young planters while the trend among plantation youth to return to the estates, where their roots are, after spending a few years working in the city and earning money, is also encouraging.
Surveys have found that out of 100-120 planters leaving the sector every year, about half are in the 26-40 year age group.

“These are the boys who are going to form the backbone of the industry in the future,” declared Dan Seevaratnam, a senior planter and executive deputy chairman of Kahawatte Planations, part of the MJF Group. Since privatisation there had been a large exodus of planters with 86 leaving in 1998, 93 in 1999, 101 in 2000, 115 in 2001, 120 in 2002, 130 in 2003, and 100 last year.

“When you look at the statistics of planters leaving, we’re averaging 100 a year – it is not reducing,” said Seevaratnam. “That means our efforts have not been successful or we’re really not addressing the issue as much as we should.” Cuda Nugawela, the superintendent of Pitakanda Estate, owned by Elkaduwa Plantations, said the twin problems of an exodus of planters and a worker shortage could have serious repercussions on the viability of the industry in the years ahead.

“It is going to be a very serious problem in future unless we take action to reduce the exodus.” There are many reasons for the exodus of planters. Young, newly married estate superintendents face no problems until their children reach school going age.

“Then the problem starts - of running two homes because boarding schools today don’t cater for the needs of present day students,” said Seevaratnam. “Today, with tuition and extra curricula activities, students have to go outside school for extra lessons, and they suffer if they don’t.”

This forces planters’ wives to have a second home usually in Colombo to send their children to school, resulting in families being divided and the resulting stresses and strains.

“There are huge demands on planter parents – on their time - in terms of parenting. So they’re compelled to come down to Colombo,” said Seevaratnam. “Planters are good managers and good leaders. They can find jobs all over Colombo. They know all three languages, can do infrastructure development which they have done on estates, and know how to get work from people at all levels.”

Seevaratnam differentiates the exodus of planters into two categories. He describes as ‘pull factors’ those from outside the work environment relating to family, schooling, better facilities in Colombo, and the attraction of city lights for youngsters. Others from within the work environment are ‘push’ factors.
“As a CEO and as someone doing a lot of training and coaching for RPCs, I’m acutely aware of the push factors,” said Seevaratnam. “We as managing agents do not have an attractive environment in work places to retain good people. Any human being wants appreciation, recognition. The culture of RPCs is such that we’re a bit slow in appreciating and recognising talent and hard work.”

The need for recognition, not money, has emerged as the main reason for planters to quit. “Because of the large numbers we manage, giving individual recognition is not easy but it has to be done,” said Seevaratnam.
“The bigger challenge to management is to retain good people by reducing the push factors from within the sector.”

Though name boards have changed following privatisation, complimentary attitude changes do not seem to have taken place to the desired extent.
“I’m not altogether convinced management attitudes have changed to the extent that our young executives want – younger executives are far more demanding, not so docile know their worth. You can’t treat them any old way and expect to keep them.”

However, Seevaratnam said RPCs themselves have had to grapple with a host of problems since privatisation. “In fairness to RPCs, they are going through a very difficult time,” he said, pointing out that companies have to face sudden cost increases such as the VAT imposed in January 2005 apart from regular wage hikes every two years and other routine costs increases. The VAT payments for Kahawatte Plantations cost Rs 36 million for one year, with other RPCs paying up to Rs 40 million.

“When every two years we renegotiate a collective wage agreement, that costs us about Rs 50-60 million,” said Seevaratnam. ”These are huge issues we’re grappling with, apart from other issues like rising energy and fertiliser costs. So every time you raise your head, you get hammered.”
The industry is also facing a growing worker shortage because of the reluctance of plantation youth to work on estates.

“Young people have their own fears and aspirations in life, with youth being better educated today,” said Seevaratnam. “Now, the aspiration of educated youth is not to go and be a tea plucker or rubber tapper.”

Plantations have to increase productivity to cope with the worker shortages.
“Mechanisation is the way forward,” declared Seevaratnam. “Workers look at mechanisation as step to the future. Rather than giving them a plucking basket, if they are given shears and machines they feel they are technologically advanced.”However, mechanisation is capital intensive and machines are expensive.

In plantations, as much as 70 percent of cost of production is people cost.
“People are a huge asset we have to manage,” said Seevaratnam. “No more are people a captive asset we have on plantations. They are mobile and know what they are worth. Previously, for workers, their entire enclave was the plantations but today the entire country is a playing field for them. No more are they captive. They educated citizens of this country.”

Some of the youth who go out and work do come back to the estate, where their roots are, when the time comes to settle down. “For youth of 18-25 years, going out and seeing the world, earning some money and coming back, is not a bad thing. So it is not altogether something one has to despair of.”
Poverty levels found to be high in plantation communities appear to be a result of the high incidence of alcoholism and not poor wages.

“What is frightening is that recent surveys have found that 40-60 percent of earned wages are going on alcohol,” said Seevaratnam. “So however much wages are increased, the number of crèches, better hospitals and homes, the poverty level is high due to high illicit alcohol consumption levels.”
On many RPCs where there was an excess of labour, now there is a shortage. This is a result of high absenteeism caused by illicit liquor much of which is brewed in estates or their vicinity.

“So their productivity drops drastically - it is a national problem. “Repeated increases in wages every two years which is crippling the industry on one side, is not reflected in higher quality of work on the other side because the money goes to illicit liquor,” said Seevaratnam.

“If that can be reduced – by a process of educating them – it could help reduce the problem – by better savings techniques to improve their quality of life. The erosion in the quality of life of workers is directly attributed to illicit alcohol.”

Where there has been community involvement in reducing the use of illicit alcohol, there has been a noticeable improvement. “But it has to be from within – pressure groups from within estates have to bring about a change in attitude. There is a limit to which management firms and police can intervene,” Seevaratnam said.

While labour unions were focussed on looking more at income security and insist on getting 300 days of work annually, Seevaratnam believes the emphasis should be different.

“We must move away from income security and get into employment security. What is needed is production oriented laws rather than social oriented laws. In the plantations, social orientation is killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”

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