Tea plantation estate which requires workers throughout the year, and the nature of work needs the involvement of both the male and female work force. Most of the activities related with the tea cultivation such as plucking, pruning, spraying of pesticides, shade lopping and so on are learnt just by observing the experienced workers engaged in a particular activity. Also, the experienced workers may show the way of doing the particular operation should be done or carried out. Plucking of tea leaves is an important activity and is a specialised job done by the female workforce. Tea plucking is a important activity, which is mostly done by women workers. Plucking is considered a highly skilled job because the quality of leaves harvested or plucked determines the quality of the final product black tea. It is pointed out that as women are considered skilled they are engaged in this operation. And, except tea plucking, men workers generally carry out most of the other activities. Pruning and spraying are also considered as skilled work. The workers involved in the activities are paid job differentials. The tea plantation workers come in the category of 'wage labourers' and they are distinctly different from peasants and other industrial wage labourers in these countries. In Kerala the labour involved in tea plantations is basically migrant workers from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and even from North India. The Standard of Living and working conditions represents a combination of positive or negative feelings that workers have towards their work. The Quality of work life is an important indicator of how workers feel about their jobs. The study aimed to ascertain the living and working conditions of tea workers employed in tea estate in Kerala. The present study aims to identify the living and working condition of the tea plantation workers. In addition, it was also found that four factors, that is living conditions, Workplace Environment, Pay and Conveyance, and Work Timings were the highly problematic factors causing dissatisfaction among the workers employed in the tea estates.
