IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v67y2024i1d10.1007_s41027-024-00491-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of COVID-19 on Tea Plantation Workers in India: Issues of Labour Market Institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Debdulal Saha

    (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali)

Abstract

This paper discusses the effects of COVID-19-induced pandemic on tea plantation workers during lockdown phases in India. The tea industry, being a labour-intensive, employs around 1.2 million permanent workers who usually reside within the plantations along with their families, making the largest employer in the formal private sector. Drawing from secondary data and narratives from in-depth telephonic interviews with various key informants during and post-lockdown, this study shows that plantation workers faced livelihood crisis due to subsequent lockdowns during both the waves of COVID-19 health crisis. Poor health infrastructure in the tea estates, weak trade union and existing wage determination methods are responsible for livelihood crisis for plantation workers during pandemic. Except state-assisted social assistance benefits in terms of ration, unlike permanent workers of other sectors and industries, regular plantation workers did not even receive compensated wages from the employer during lockdown, following ‘no-wage for no-work’ clause. Ineffective labour market institutions and rigid managementality failed to protect tea plantation workers during the crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Debdulal Saha, 2024. "Effects of COVID-19 on Tea Plantation Workers in India: Issues of Labour Market Institutions," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(1), pages 255-279, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:67:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s41027-024-00491-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-024-00491-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-024-00491-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-024-00491-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Santosh Mehrotra & Jajati K. Parida, 2021. "Stalled Structural Change Brings an Employment Crisis in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(2), pages 281-308, June.
    2. repec:icf:icfjag:v:07:y:2010:i:4:p:50-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Blau, Francine D. & Kahn, Lawrence M., 1999. "Institutions and laws in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 25, pages 1399-1461, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniele Checchi & Laura Pagani, 2005. "The effects of unions on wage inequality. The Italian case in the 1990s," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 43-70.
    2. Bonatti, Luigi, 2002. "The effects of wage compression on unemployment and on the intersectoral distribution of employment: a dynamic model," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 127-144, June.
    3. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. K. P. Kannan, 2022. "India’s Elusive Quest for Inclusive Development: An Employment Perspective," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 579-623, September.
    5. Mohl, Philipp & Hagen, Tobias, 2011. "Do EU structural funds promote regional employment? Evidence from dynamic panel data models," Working Paper Series 1403, European Central Bank.
    6. Veronique Genre & Karsten Kohn & Daphne Momferatou, 2011. "Understanding inter-industry wage structures in the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(11), pages 1299-1313.
    7. Sahoo, Dukhabandhu & Mohanty, Pritisudha & Mishra, Surbhi & Behera, Manash & Mohapatra, Souryabrata, 2024. "Does climate-smart agriculture technology improve the subjective well-being of farmers? Evidence from micro-level data," MPRA Paper 123955, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Donna Brown & Peter Ingram & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2004. "Everyone's A Winner? Union Effects on Persistence in Private Sector Wage Settlements: Longitudinal Evidence from Britain," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1104, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    9. Cai, Xiaoming & Gautier, Pieter A. & Teulings, Coen N. & Watanabe, Makoto, 2014. "Collective versus decentralized wage bargaining and the efficient allocation of resources," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 34-42.
    10. Puhani, Patrick A., 2001. "Wage rigidities in Western Germany? Microeconometric evidence from the 1990s," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-36, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Amit Basole, 2022. "Structural Transformation and Employment Generation in India: Past Performance and the Way Forward," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(2), pages 295-320, June.
    12. Hübler, Olaf & Meyer, Wolfgang, 2000. "Industrial Relations and the Wage Differentials between Skilled and Unskilled Blue-Collar Workers within Establishments: An Empirical Analysis with Data of Manufacturing Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 176, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Małgorzata Tarczynska-Luniewska & Iwona Bak & Uma Shankar Singh & Guru Ashish Singh, 2022. "Economic Crisis Impact Assessment and Risk Exposure Evaluation of Selected Energy Sector Companies from Bombay Stock Exchange," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-25, November.
    14. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida & Kirtti Ranjan Paltasingh, 2023. "Gender Wage Gap among Rural Non-farm Sector Employees in India: Evidence from Nationally Representative Survey," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 28(1), pages 22-44, June.
    15. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Kohn, Karsten, 2005. "Gleicher Lohn für gleiche Arbeit? : zum Zusammenhang zwischen Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft und Lohnstruktur in Westdeutschland 1985-1997 (Equal pay for equal work? * on the relationship between union m," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 38(2/3), pages 125-146.
    16. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2003. "Understanding International Differences in the Gender Pay Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 106-144, January.
    17. Liu, Xueyue & Zuo, Sharon Xuejing, 2023. "From equality to polarization: Changes in urban China’s gender earnings gap from 1988 to 2016," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 303-337.
    18. Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Richard Frensch & Stephan Huber, 2021. "Political economy of labor market institutions in a globalised era," Working Papers 391, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    19. Ramesh Chand, 2023. "Changes in Labour Force and Employment: Evidence from PLFS Data," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(3), pages 645-660, September.
    20. Simon, Hipolito, 2005. "Employer wage differentials from an international perspective," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 284-288, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tea plantation workers; COVID-19 crisis; Labour market institutions; Livelihood crisis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:67:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s41027-024-00491-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.