Govt affiliated Darjeeling Tea garden worker wage reach Rs 90

Darjeeling: The West Bengal Tea Development Corporation has decided to increase the daily wage of labourers in its three Darjeeling Tea gardens to Rs 90, the standard amount paid by the industry in the region.

The hike comes after the trade union of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha threatened that it would launch a fast and stop the dispatch of Darjeeling tea from the three tea gardens if the wage was not increased from Rs 67 to Rs 90.

The Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union today called off the agitation following the increase in the wages of workers in Rangmuk-Cedar, Pandam and Rangaroon tea gardens.

An official of Rangmuk-Cedar tea garden in Darjeeling said: “We received a verbal instruction from the WBTDC head office in Calcutta to disburse wages at Rs 90 a day from February onwards. We have been directed to make requisition (for salaries) at the new rate and we have already started work. The labourers will be paid the arrears as and when the state government provides us with additional funds.”

The “arrears” he was referring to was the amount accumulated since April 1, 2011, when the new wage deal came into effect in the Darjeeling tea industry. Before that, the workers were being paid Rs 67 a day.

Although the headquarters of the WBTDC could not be contacted, sources said a circular on the wage hike was expected to be issued soon.

When the Morcha union issued the agitation threat on Wednesday, industries minister Partha Chatterjee claimed that the workers in the three Darjeeling WBTDC tea gardens were being paid Rs 90 as in the entire industry.

Baban Subba, a central committee member of the union, said today: “The tea workers are very happy with the development (the decision to increase the wage hike). We have decided to call off our agitation.”

Source: The Telegraph

33% Salary hike from April for Darjeeling Tea garden staff

After the hike in salary of the sub-staff of Darjeeling Tea plantations, the super-staff salary hike is also on the chart which will be applicable from April 2012.

After negotiations with the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labor Union (DTDPLU) - affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) - the garden management has announced a 33% salary hike for super-staff including clerks, medical and technical workers.

After the increase in bonus and wages of the sub-staff earlier this year, the DTDPLU had been demanding an increase in salary of the super-staff. The union had even threatened to paralyze work in the garden last week after the management failed to do so.

Finally, the decision to increase the salary was taken at a meeting that was held till late in the night on Monday. There are more then 1,400 super-staff in the 87 tea gardens in the Hills of Darjeeling. "The 33% hike will be applicable for three years," said Sandeep Mukherjee, principal adviser to the Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA), an umbrella organization of the 87 Darjeeling Tea gardens.

Trade union leaders expressed satisfaction over the hike. "We are happy that our demand was met," said Suraj Subba, secretary of DTDPLU.

At present, the Darjeeling Tea plantation technical workers get something between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,500 according to their seniority and grade. The salary of medical and clerical staff range between Rs 8,000 and Rs 9,000.

Source: Times of India

Tea bonus hint: less than 20%

Darjeeling, Aug. 23: The Darjeeling Tea Association today said the planters will not be able to pay Puja bonus to workers at last year’s rate of 20 per cent, an announcement that met with protests from the trade union of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

The planters said rampant absenteeism among tea labourers who are more keen on the 100 days’ work scheme, hike in workers’ wages and lower export orders because of recession had pushed up the cost of production, and hence, they cannot pay bonus at last year’s rate.

In 2010, the Darjeeling tea industry, which produces the world’s premier brew, paid bonus at the rate of 20 per cent for grades A, B and C gardens and at 17 percent for estates in the Grade D category. The 20 per cent bonus is the highest fixed under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951.

The bonus percentage is calculated on the basis of the total annual earnings of a worker.

H.R. Chaudhary, the president of the DTA, today said: “Our production has come down because of several reasons. The production cost has increased by 45 per cent because of inflation and hike in wages by about 33 per cent. As a result, we might not be able to pay the annual bonus at last year’s rate.”

According to DTA officials, the cost of producing a kilogram of Darjeeling tea hovers around Rs 350-370. “The maximum selling price of organic tea at times is only about Rs 400 per kg,” said an official of the DTA.

Sandeep Mukherjee, the principal adviser to the DTA, said: “Our production last year was 7.96 million kg of tea. At one time, the industry used to produce 13 million kg of made tea annually.” This time, the crop production has come down, though the figures are not available yet. Planters said they calculated the profits from the first and second flushes in the beginning of the season.

“One major problem is the absenteeism among garden workers which at times is as high as 25 per cent. Most of them prefer the 100 days work scheme instead of plucking tea leaves,” said Mukherjee.

The daily wage this year has been increased to Rs 90 from Rs 67. Although the hike is the highest in the history of the Darjeeling tea industry, the wage is still less than what the workers get under the 100 days job scheme. The daily wage under the central scheme is Rs 130.

“It is actually not true that we are paying less. Even though we give Rs 90 as daily wage, there are other benefits like provident fund and annual bonus. If we take these into account, our daily wages work out to around Rs 130,” said Chaudhary.

Mukherjee said the only way to stop the absenteeism was if the 100-days work scheme was undertaken between November and February, the lean season for the industry.

“We had approached the district administration but they said it had to be undertaken according to the requirement of the villagers and not during specific months,” said Mukherjee.

The DTA also said the recession in the West was bringing down export orders. “Considering all these factors, it is not possible to pay bonus at last year’s rate,” said Chaudhary.

The DTA has 12 Grade A, 15 Grade B, 16 Grade C and 17 Grade D gardens. The Indian Tea Association, another planters’ body in the hills, has six Grade A gardens, five Grade B and four Grade C estates as its members. Only one Grade D garden is a member of the ITA.

The planters’ announcement has been criticised by the Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling-Terai-Dooars Plantation Labour Union. “What are they (planters) talking about? This proposal will never be accepted. In fact, looking into the overall scenario we want the planters to give bonus at the rate of 20 per cent even to Grade D gardens this year,” said P.T Sherpa, the president of the union.

The union said they had not pressed for other benefits — like construction of new labour houses and repair of existing ones, hospitals in gardens that do not have one and improved medical aid and other fringe benefits — to ensure that the bonus is high

The Telegraph

Darjeeling Tea workers association cry for daily wage increment

The CPRM-affiliated union for tea garden workers in the hills has demanded an interim increment of 33 per cent in their daily wage.

K.B. Subba, general secretary of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Chia Kaman Mazdoor Union, said given the rise in food prices, the workers were finding it hard to make their ends meet.

“According to the labour department, New Delhi, the minimum daily wage in Sikkim was Rs 85, Rs 89 in Karnataka, Rs 87 in Uttar Pradesh, Rs 71 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 81 in Kerala and Rs 73 in Jharkhand for 2006-07. But workers in the hills are getting only Rs 62.50,” said Subba.

An agreement on hike in the wages of tea garden workers had last been reached on August 23, 2008.

“We demand an interim increment of 33 per cent of the current wage not only in the hills but in the Terai and the Dooars also,” said Subba.

According to the union, the second largest in the hills, there are three lakh workers in 277 gardens in north Bengal, of whom 55,000 are in the hills.

Sandeep Mukherjee, the secretary of the Darjeeling Tea Association, had recently said: “The industry is in trouble. While the production has come down, labour strength of 55,000 has not gone down. Wages, too, have increased by almost 20 per cent in a decade.”