An indefinite agitation launched by a group of workers of Kambamala tea estate under the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) in Wayanad district seeking job security entered the 21st day on Friday.
Workers launched the agitation on July 15 after the estate authorities denied job for as many as 40 workers citing financial crisis, A. Devaraj, president, INTUC Kambamala unit, said.
The Kambamala tea plantation project, spread over 100 hectares, was launched in 1979 to provide employment to repatriates from Sri Lanka. Close to 120 families were rehabilitated under the project, Mr. Devaraj said.
“All the workers are relatives of retired workers of the estate but they are considered as casual workers. Though they had been working in the estate for the past nine years, the authorities are yet to make them permanent,” he said.
As the work in the estate is the sole means of income for their families during the pandemic, they should be retained, he said.
“We had also submitted a memorandum seeking the intervention of the Chief Minister in the issue,” he said. If the authorities failed to consider the fair demands of workers, the agitation would be intensified, he added.
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