CARE Affair #11 - Power

the plantation managers’ communication
skills, encouraging them to
involve their employees and work
with them more fully. The traditional
picture of a ruling boss who takes
all the decisions and holds all the
power no longer applies. The structures
have changed, with positive
effects for both the companies and
their employees. With the help of the
Community Development Forums,
these changes were noticeable across
all tea plantations that participated
in CARE’s project. “When I arrived
on this plantation, I was used to the
conventional management working
method in which the relationship to
the workers is formal and distant,”
one tea plantation manager in the
Sri Lankan highlands told us. “And
then they explained to me what
these Community Development
Forums are. Due to my conventional
training I didn’t like the idea at
first and hesitated to take part. But
soon I watched with delight as the
participants tackled and solved their
problems together. Now I can say
that I would repeat this process if I
transferred to another plantation.”
Worker participation increases
social and economic sustainability
in the whole tea industry. Companies
should stop viewing it as purely philanthropic
and recognize that participation
is a core aspect of responsible
company management. More investhigh
standards for her work and she
now expects the same from the other
workers. But she has also learnt that
there is sometimes a fine line between
strict instructions and an excessively
rough tone. Even though Rajalakshmi
has spent her whole life on the tea
plantation, she has managed to become
more empowered and self-reliant
in her position. The eternal
family cycle of tea workers who had
no rights has now been broken.
When workers participate in
decision-making and other processes
on the tea plantations, it improves
working conditions and productivity.
Studies on the plantations
reveal impressive economic effects:
for every euro invested in worker
participation, the plantation companies
earn an additional 25 euros. The
plantations that offer Community
Development Forums also report a 25
percent increase in the amount of tea
picked by the same number of workers.
Women have career prospects in
that they can become kanganis. And
there is another positive aspect that
shouldn’t be underestimated: The
time saved by managers. With the
introduction of CDFs, managers save
on average 16 hours a week that are
otherwise spent on explanations and
mediating conflicts. The reason for
this is that the open, direct approach
in the CDFs actually reduces the number
of problems, as well as improving
ment in systems such as the Community
Development Forums is needed.
Non-governmental organizations such
as CARE are important partners in
this process. Some NGOs have been
firmly established within the system
for years and enjoy a great degree of
trust. In Sri Lanka, CARE was able to
act as an impartial moderator and
partner, helping with the design and
implementation of worker participation.
And CARE itself was changed
by the process: CARE Sri Lanka was
transformed into a social enterprise,
calls itself Chrysalis today and has become
an affiliate member of the CARE
International confederation. Based on
CARE’s decades of experience, Chrysalis
offers consultation and other
services to strengthen workers’ rights
and productivity in the tea industry.
A real gain for all sides – including for
those of us who like drinking tea.
Who’s the boss?
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