The Fairtrade Premium Committees (FPC) in the Burnside, Kotada/Welbeck, Thiashola and Dunsandle tea estates were over the moon when they heard they can now use their Fairtrade Premiums to buy home equipment or distribute a percentage of it as cash.

Following the changes to the Hired Labour Standard, workers are now the sole-decision makers on use of Premium money. And it’s refrigerators that are top of the wish-list in Burnside estate!

As the manager there remarked: “The workers will not sleep nor will they let me sleep until they acquire refrigerators with the premium money!”

Thiashola FPC is looking at the idea of savings certificates that can be cashed in by workers in the future. But before they all get too carried away, the FPCs may need to do a little groundwork first and Liaison Officer Raju has been busy helping them do some risk analysis before they put their premium plans into action.

That means in Burnside they need to get an inspection done to see if the local electrical supply network has the capacity to support the power demands of at least 300 fridges!