Major Indian Tea Plantation Becomes Employee-Owned

Ninety-two percent of the 13,000 employees of Kanan Devon Hills Plantations (KDP), a South Indian tea plantation, have purchased stock to buy the company from its owner, Tata Tea. The plantation had been losing money until the 2004 buyout, but productivity has gone up 34% and solid profits have returned. Tata, which is largely owned by charitable trusts, could have sold the plantation to other buyers, but felt an obligation to the workers and to retaining the company's commitment to the plantation's environmental practices. Employees can elect board members and hold biweekly meetings in each of the company's 82 divisions to generate new ideas, a process that management reports has generated "smart talk on green-leaf harvesting" from people whose expertise had, they said, largely been ignored. Classes are organized for employees, most of whom are women, to help them participate more effectively. The plantation is now also able to diversify into other crops. When a statewide strike of tea workers shut down all tea operations in the area for 11 days, only KDP workers stayed on the job.