Tea workers fear lean season hindrance to tea wage negotiation

 Trade unions fear that if tea wages for Dooars workers are not revised before Diwali, planters may delay the negotiation and extend it to next year citing the three-month lean season starting from November.

Around 2.5 lakh tea workers are yet to get the new scale to be revised from the existing Rs 67 per day.

The trade unions had been insisting on Rs 90 a day like the hill workers, a proposal that has been shot down by planters who have argued that Darjeeling Tea is sold at a much higher price than CTC, which is grown in the Dooars. So, the salary of hill workers could not be compared with those in the plains.

“We had been waiting eagerly for Durga Puja to end and want the wages to be finalised at the earliest. It would be best if it is settled before Diwali, which is around 20 days away,” said Aloke Chakraborty, the Darjeeling district president of Intuc, the trade union of the Congress.

“If no decision is reached till Diwali and the current month ends, it will be difficult for us to negotiate as the lean season will commence from November. Planters, who will not earn during these months because of halt in production, may delay the negotiation till the next season starting in March 2012,” said Chakraborty.

The current wages are paid on the basis of a three-year tripartite agreement signed in 2008.

It expired on March 31 this year and since then there had been seven rounds of unsuccessful tripartite talks. The last was held on the first week of September.

“During the course of the negotiation, we brought down our demands considerably but the planters have refused to relent even then,” said Sukra Munda, the chairperson of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad-backed Progressive Tea Workers’ Union

“Given the trend of talks, we doubt whether any agreement will be signed at all in the coming lean season. It is best to bargain and convince planters in the next 15-20 days to agree to a revised scale, that is, before Diwali and immediately after Puja.”

The state labour department has called another round of tripartite talks on October 13.

“We are now hoping that the talks succeed as already six months of the current fiscal has passed. Workers want an early solution, as they are aware that their counterparts in the Darjeeling hills are earning Rs 90 a day. They will surely get arrears as the new agreement will be effective from April 1, 2011 but it is a test of patience,” said Samir Roy, convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers Rights, an apex body of tea trade unions.

Planters, however, said the gardens had suffered considerably in the September 18 earthquake.

“Most of the gardens in the Terai and the Dooars have suffered damage and some have incurred losses worth crores,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of the Indian Tea Association. “Regarding settlement of wages, we were never reluctant to negotiate. We had already submitted detailed information to the state government about the expenses incurred to run a tea estate.”

“It is not the question of lean season but the affordability of the tea companies that has to be kept in mind. The trade unions should rationalise their demands. We too had proposed a revised wage and do not want to drag on the issue. We are hopeful of a positive outcome at the meeting called by the state labour department next week,” he added.

Source: The Telegraph

More fringe benefits for tea workers

Guwahati, Aug. 27: The tea industry has agreed to increase the quantum of fringe benefits to its workers.

It has acceded to increase the quantity of dry tea given to daily workers, the firewood given to sub-staff and the incentives given to workers engaged in spraying operations, as demanded by the Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS).

A memorandum of settlement to this effect was signed in Dibrugarh yesterday between representatives of five employers’ associations and the ACMS, which represents the workers.

The meeting was attended by DoNER minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, who is also the president of Assam Cha Mazdoor Sangha. This is the first tea industry meeting that Ghatowar has attended since becoming DoNER minister.

The agreement was signed after several rounds of bilateral discussions between the ACMS and the Assam valley branch of the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations.

The chairman of Indian Tea Association, C.S. Bedi, was also present at the meeting.

According to the agreement, permanent workers who earlier got 600gm of dry tea per month per family, according to the 1979 fringe benefits agreement, will get 900gm per month with effect from September 1.

Single workers will now get 400gm of tea compared to the previous 300gm.

The firewood entitlement, which was fixed at 228 cubic feet according to the 1979 agreement, has now been increased to 342 cubic feet. The agreement will be interim till the time LPG is made available.

It was also decided that the sprayers engaged in gardens will get an additional compensation of Rs 3 per day.

“The agreement will have some financial impact but we are doing this for the welfare of the workers since we care for them,” a tea industry official who attended the meeting said.

The industry has been asking the Centre to share half the social cost borne by the plantation industry but nothing has materialised despite various committees’ recommendations.

The social cost is now Rs 9 per kg of made tea.

The social cost incurred in providing housing, health and sanitation to the workers is being borne by the industry.

Tea workers in Assam to get incentive

The Assam tea industry has revised the incentives for tea-leaf plucking for workers in Brahmaputra Valley. The decision came just a couple of months after wage revision of tea garden workers by the industry.

The decision was arrived at a meeting between representatives of the tea industry from Indian Tea Association (ITA), Tea Association of India (TAI), Bharatiya Chah Parishad (BCP), Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA) and North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) in Dibrugarh in Upper Assam.

At the meeting it was agreed that minimum plucking task during ‘ticca’ period (which is generally from June to October) would be revised from 21 kgs to 23 kgs per day from the upcoming season.

The incentive for extra leaf plucking, for output above minimum task of 23 kgs, was enhanced in two slabs, with a view to affectiing improvement in productivity. First, anything plucked extra than 23 kgs to average output of the garden would be paid 55 paise per kg. And, anything plucked above the average output of the garden would be paid Re. 1 per kg.

Average output of the garden is arrived at by dividing green leaf harvest during ticca period of last three consecutive year by man-day’s deployed for plucking during the same period.

It was also decided at the meeting to revise the additional compensation for factory workers to Rs. 3 per day with effect from ‘ticca’ period commencing from plucking season of 2010.

ACMS had been demanding revision of the plucking rates applicable to daily rated workers engaged in plucking in tea estates in Brahmaputra Valley, the last revision having been affected on March 27, 1993.

Tea industry sources present at the meeting told Business Standard that the issue of improvement of productivity was discussed at length, and after protracted discussions the settlement of revision of incentives was reached.

Sources said that the employers’ association expressed concern at the growing trend of absenteeism of permanent workers and discussed ways and means with ACMS to curb the trend. ACMS, the workers association, agreed to co-operate with the garden managements in their effort to reduce absenteeism.

In February this year the Assam tea industry had increased tea wages for workers of Brahmaputra Valley by Rs. 18 in three phases and with retrospective effect from January 1 this year.

Source: Business Standard

Tea workers threaten strike if demand for interim wage hike not met

The Co-ordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers (CCTPW) today threatened to launch an indefinite strike in north Bengal if its demand for an interim wage hike was not met by May.

Leaders of the CCTPW, an apex body of trade unions in north Bengal tea gardens and affiliated to Citu and Intuc, held a meeting in Jalpaiguri this afternoon to discuss the problems faced by the labourers because of inflation.

“Unprecedented rise in the prices of essential commodities has prompted us to raise the demand for an interim hike in wages with immediate effect,” said Chitta Dey, the convener of the CCTPW. “We also want an increase in the dearness allowances of employees like the staff and sub-staff serving in the plantations.”

Dey said the committee would send memorandums seeking wage hike to the central and state governments and the planters’ associations on April 15. “If no positive development with regard to our demand is noticed by May, we will resort to a movement with a one day strike across the brew belt. That will be followed by dharnas, rallies, meetings and eventually an indefinite strike,” he said.

The existing wage agreement inked by the unions and the garden managements will expire in 2011.

As of now, he said, there are around 2.50 lakh workers serving in the tea industry, along with more than 30,000 staff and sub-staff.

Observers say the formation of a tea trade union by the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and its demand to increase the daily tea wage from Rs 62 to Rs 250 have prompted the CCTPW to jump into action.

The CCTPW also demanded the recruitment of more workers by the gardens and the formation of a new wage board. “The planters had in 1999 agreed to recruit 10,000 new workers. However, only 5,000 people have been employed. We also demand another wage board,” Dey said.

He added that the last wage board had been formed by the Centre in 1966.

Source: The Telegraph

Tea workers plan stir against non-payment

Workers of the Bharnobari Tea Estate at Kalchini in the Dooars today blocked the National Highway 31 near Old Hasimara bus stand demanding immediate clearance of alleged pending wages and last 10 rations.
Mrs Debi Lohar, a protester said that the workers were unpaid for the months of February and March. Following a workers’ stir, the plantation manager Mr Jayanto Banarjee had assured to clear all the dues by last Saturday but the management has failed to do so. "We were told that we would be paid on Wednesday but were not. The manager is not here, and finding no other way to voice our problems, we blocked the highway,” she said.
Another agitating worker Mr Raju Biswakarma alleged the workers had not received ration for the past ten weeks. “We have run out of our resources and yet the management is unconcerned. Most of our co-workers are starving and they have no money to buy food. If the plantation management does not clear our dues by Saturday we could disrupt train services in the area and also boycott the Lok Sabha polls,” said Mr Biswakarma.
The agitators withdrew following intervention by the BDO Kalchini, OC Jaigaon police station and OC Hasimara police out post.
The BDO Kalchini Mr Rajendraraj Somdas said that the Bharnobarie management has sent Rs 10 lakh for the workers’ payment for the month of February. “We are also trying to clear their dues for the month of March by 13 April but we cannot assure anything about ration,” the BDO said.

Tea workers’ stir worries LF

SILIGURI, Nov. 18: The principal constituents of the West Bengal Left Front today cautioned that growing resentment over a number of issues among the tribal tea plantation labourers might lead to a major law and order problem in north Bengal in near future.

“The portents are ominous. Grievances have been growing among the tribal community principally concentrated in the tea plantations over the continuing deprivation. This unrest being negatively channelised for some time might snowball into a major law and order problem in the region,” said the Darjeeling district RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI leaders.

The RSP Darjeeling district secretary Mr Binay Chakravarty said that the tribal people working in the tea plantation were at the receiving end of the exploitative tactics being adopted by the plantation owners. “The subservient role being played by the Centre and the state government is accentuating the problem. The depth of the apathy to the plight of the workers can be gauged from the fact that the tea plantation related housing board meeting had been held a week ago after a span of a decade. Moreover, there is no drinking water provision in most of the tea plantations in the Darjeeling and the Jalpaiguri districts,” he said.

The FB Darjeeling district secretary Mr Smritish Bhattacharya said that apart from the lack of drinking water provision there is no health centre to cater to the medical requirements of the plantation workers. “Besides, the residential quarters in many plantations are crumbling. This situation, becoming alarming as it is, may spiral out of the control of the administration any time unless the pent up grievances are sincerely addressed,” the FB leader said.

Echoing the apprehension, the CPI Darjeeling district secretary Mr Ujjawal Chowdhury said that mere profiteering inclination on the part of the plantation owners in flagrant violation of the Plantation Labour Act might land the region in problem. “The Centre and the state government should step in immediately to force the owners to take initiatives at bettering the living condition of the workers,” he said.
Asked to comment the CPI-M state committee member Mr Jibesh Sarkar said that the Left Front government had been doing everything to better the living conditions of the plantation workers. “But a state government, given several constraints, cannot go against the socio-economic structure of the country. Nonetheless, the wages have increased many times over the past years because of relentless pressure from the state government on the profit mongering owners. The faulty Central economic policy is responsible for the fast worsening plight of the poor people as a whole,” the CPI-M leader asserted.

Tea worker reinstated in tea garden after 23 years dismissal

A worker was reinstated in Mogalkata Tea Estate after 23 years of his dismissal from the garden, thanks to a court order.

Pijush Khariya, 58, however, could not utilise the opportunity because of his age. He, instead, recommended his 20-year-old only daughter Sorpeena for the job.

The garden management, which took over the reins two months ago, allowed the girl to join work today.

A resident of Gudamline of the garden in the Banarhat police station area, Khariya and four others had been sacked from service in 1984 for allegedly gheraoing the then manager. The workers had been demanding their dues, said Pradip Mallick, the secretary of the central committee of National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), affiliated to the Intuc.

The management had also registered a case against the five workers with the Banarhat police.

“But in a blatant case of favouritism, the garden management had taken back four workers, who were the members of the Citu-controlled Cha Bagan Majdoor Union, the same year. Since Khariya was a member of the NUPW, he was not reinstated,” Mallick alleged.

The police had referred the case to the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Jalpaiguri.

In 2006, the court directed Khariya’s reinstatement in the garden after declaring him “innocent”.

Mallick said Khariya, however, is not staking any claim to his dues of 23 years.

Source: The Telegraph

Puja grant for closed tea garden workers

The Bengal government today declared a festival grant of Rs 750 each to workers of closed industries in the state.

The grant is expected to bring relief to the labourers of 13 closed tea estates in the Dooars and two in the Darjeeling hills.

“The state finance ministry has given the approval today. We now have to ensure that workers in closed gardens and other closed industries receive the grant before Diwali,” Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said at a news conference here this evening.

So far, the state government had been paying Rs 750 per month to the jobless workers of the closed tea gardens under the Financial Assistance to Workers of Locked Out Industries scheme.

“We demand that the Centre should pay Rs 750 per month out of its own funds to boost our grant,” Bhattacharya said. “This would take the monthly allowance to Rs 1,500, thus bringing some relief to the workers.”

Source: The Telegraph

Fund use mismatched at tea garden

Workers of the closed Kanthalguri Tea Estate today kept nine members of the operations and maintenance committee (OMC) confined to the garden office for six-seven hours, accusing them of defalcating Rs 10 lakh.

The accused nine were detained by police in the evening. “The workers’ complaint has been accepted. We have asked the police to arrest the OMC members and produce them in court tomorrow,” said Jalpaiguri subdivisional officer Atanu Roy.

The nine, all trade union leaders, owe allegiance to different political parties, including the CPM, Trinamul Congress and the Congress.

A number of closed gardens in the Dooars are run by OMCs, which oversee plucking and sell the green tealeaves to other factories.

Trouble started at Kanthalguri in the morning.

“We went to the office to ask the members about our dues,” said Brahma Oraon, a worker. “We also wanted to know what happened to the funds received from the government under schemes like 100-days’ work, old age pension and stipend for the handicapped. But they misbehaved with us and we got angry.”

A few hundred workers locked the office with the members inside. Even a force from the Banarhat police station could not disperse them. Finally, in the evening, the police escorted the OMC members out of the office and took them to the police station.

An employee at the garden office, however, said a minor incident was being blown out of proportion. “It was a trivial dispute about a loan granted by the block development office to some of the workers for doing petty business during the Pujas,” he claimed.

Source: The Telegraph

Labor Pain in the tea gardens

It is an idea which evoked mixed reactions across the tea gardens in India. The move was a big success in the southern parts of the country with the Tata Tea Limited (TTL) fostering a partnership of its workers and employees to run the Kannan Devan tea gardens in Kerala’s Munnar region. But the same project is facing birth pangs in the northern parts of India with workers in West Bengal and Assam tea gardens expressing apprehensions over the concept.

In fact, the Kerala success had encouraged TTL to try this in the north Indian tea gardens, better known as North India Plantation Operations (NIPO) in Assam and West Bengal. However, the company is optimistic that its new concept of partnership of workers in the management of the tea gardens would be hailed as a landmark measure in the Marxists-dominated polity of West Bengal.

The TTL had initiated reorganization of its four tea gardens at Damdim, Rangamutti, Newara and Batabari with 10,000 workers from April 1 this year. The gardens are located in the Duar region of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal. Same efforts are continuing in Assam where the management is reportedly getting wholehearted cooperation from both the workers (around 20,000) of the 20 gardens and the two trade unions — Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha and Assam Chah Karmachari Sangha.

In its four gardens in West Bengal, the TTL has begun the process of converting the company into a new entity — Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd (APPL). “The APPL had technically come into being on April 1, 2007 itself. But some hoardings at certain gardens still show the old name. The reason is that there persists some ambiguity about the very concept and vision of the new entity. The workers are still ruminating on the idea of having partnership through shares in the company. They fear that the Tatas may have the vicious design to gobble up their gratuity and provident fund once the company becomes operational contending that the workers — after becoming part of the management — could not claim the benefits.So no worker has bought any share in the company till now and the new entity is virtually in a limbo in the region,” says Rajen Pradhan, a former manager at a tea garden.

Pradhan, however, feels that the apprehensions of workers are unfounded. Tatas have been the most magnanimous company in the tea gardens as far as the welfare of the workers is concerned. No other garden in the region does as much as Tatas do for their workers, he said. So the new partnership move would be certainly good for the workers in the long-term.

However, the ambiguity has cropped up because it is something very unique and unprecedented for the tea gardens in the region. Pradhan, who has visited the south Indian gardens, including the Kannan Devan plantations in Kerala, told Commodity Market that “the new partnership concept has come as a bonanza for the workers in Kerala. Their status has uniquely become a combination of both wage-earners with all benefits like gratuity, provident fund, bonus and other incentives and the proprietors with returns on their equity shares in the company. This is not happening anywhere else. As a matter of fact, our workers should lap up this new move”.

Shakil Rafique, deputy manager of the TTL at Damdim, said the new partnership concept “is a pro-workers innovation. It has notched success in south Indian tea gardens. And I am sure it is going to be a success in north India too. Some people are floating the wrong notion that the new concept is a bait that Tatas are throwing to the workers, employees and executives to swallow and gradually get rid of their myriad onuses in running the gardens. It is not like that at all. Tatas are today a highly upwardly mobile and dynamic corporate house with growing global dimensions. They would never even dream to betray their workers. After all, only honesty, transparency and commitment are the ladder to success in business today,” remarks Rafique.

According to Rafique, Tatas would be arranging long-term soft loans at low interest rates for the workers to buy shares in the company and the loans would be gradually deducted in small amounts. In this, the workers will not have to part with their funds in gratuity or provident funds to buy the shares. Their such funds would remain intact. Explaining the reasons for workers’ reluctance, Rafique said in the recent past several tea gardens had been closed down in the region.

“So it is natural that Tatas’ such concept would spawn some suspicion in the minds of workers. They may tend to surmise that Tatas are planning to disengage themselves from the loss-incurring tea gardens. But this is not the case. Tatas have never closed down their ventures merely on the ground that they are incurring losses. Rather, Tatas have always successfully tried to find remedial means to turn the losses into profits in their typical way,” Rafique said.

But Chanu Dey, vice-president of the Maoists-controlled West Bengal Chai Bagan Majdoor Union, considers the Tatas’ proposal “as an eyewash”. “This is simply a bait to trap the workers. But the workers are not going to swallow it,” remarks Dey, whose union has the control over the workers in the four gardens of West Bengal. He said: “Sometimes back we got a proposal from Tatas that they are envisaging to restructure their company in order to make workers partners in it. They proposed that every permanent worker will have to pay Rs 8,000 to the new company, APPL, for which they would be given commensurate equity shares in it. The staff would have to contribute Rs 20,000 to 25,000 and the executives would also buy shares in the new company.”

According to Dey, the Tatas’ proposal envisaged a share structure like 21 per cent shares for workers and staff; 19 per cent for Tata management and 60 per cent for various banks and funding agencies, but the company (read Tatas) would have special powers which will enable them to have full control over the administration of the gardens and other related affairs. “Our union has rejected the proposal. We have held intensive consultations with the workers of the four gardens on the issue. But the workers have unanimously decided not to pay anything or buy any shares in the new company. Above all, we have told the company to hold consultations with the workers on their own. And they did so, but they too failed to win the workers to accept their proposal,” states Dey.

He said: “In South India workers are not like the workers in our tea gardens. They don’t live in the tea gardens. Their relationship with the gardens are only of workers. But in north India, workers and tea gardens have umbilical relations. Workers have no independent status of their own. They live here in the quarters of the company within the gardens and are permanently wedded to them through the system of gratuity, PF and other benefits like highly subsidised weekly rations, including for their aged , minor and even unemployed adult dependents. The rations are given at the rate of merely 40 paisa a kg of rice or wheat. This system has continued for over 100 years. But once the workers become share-holders, they may be gradually deprived of these benefits. The management would tell them that they were not mere workers of the company but its proprietors too and hence they could no longer behave like the past. If the company incurs losses, the burden would be shifted to its share holding workers. So we have decided not to be mesmerized by the new partnership plan of the Tatas and continue to be its workers. No doubt, Tatas as management have been much more generous to their workers compared to other tea gardens. So we don’t want to lose that generosity by becoming their partners.”

Rannen Datta, a veteran of Darjeeling tea industry and consultant to several tea gardens in Darjeeling, said: “Tatas’ concept of partnership of workers in the tea gardens is indeed a novel experiment. However, Tatas have no interest in Darjeeling and so this novel concept is not going to come to Darjeeling in the near future. But I don’t see any contradiction in principle in this novel concept. It should work creatively in Tata tea gardens anywhere. They have already notched success in south India. Actually, the principle is that the agricultural part of the undertaking will now be shared. The interests, the stakes of the agricultural part will be shared by all workers and employees and the marketing part of it will be done by the Tatas. So what is the problem? I think this would boost the productivity and earnings potential of the tea gardens,” remarks Datta.

Sandeep Mukherjee, secretary of Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) that spearheads the conglomerate of 87 tea gardens on Darjeeling hills, has a mixed opinion about the Tatas’ move. “What Tatas are doing now, the Hindustan Lever has done a few years back. The Hindustan Lever is a major player in marketing tea. Now Hindustan Lever, Brooke Bond and Lipton have merged into one. What they have seen is that tea gardens are a labor intensive unit. Besides, the tea plantations are exposed to the vagaries of nature which means if there is drought, there is a drop in production. Being labor intensive they are prone to lockouts. Gardens may be locked up. Then again production drops. And they have seen this over a period of time. Since they are strong in marketing they have found it easier to source raw materials from outside than to run their own plantations and produce leaves themselves. These are the primary reasons that Hindustan Lever has left out and sold out its plantations,” explains Mukherjee.

Source: CommodityOnline

Tea workers block road

More than 500 workers of Bharnobari Tea Estate blocked the Hasimara-Bhutan road for nearly six hours today to demand the reopening of the garden.

Later, they lodged an FIR against the owner, Arvind Poddar, for his failure to deposit the employer’s share of provident fund (Rs 2.10 crore) and pay gratuity (Rs 55 lakh) to the workers.

The estate, with more than 2,000 workers, has been closed since December 2005. Union minister of state for commerce and industry Jairam Ramesh recently hinted that a new owner wanted to take over Bharnobari, but nothing came of it.

Today, around 200 vehicles travelling to and from Bhutan got stranded on the road because of the blockade. Bharnobari Tea Estate is located beside the road.

The agitation was supposed to run for 12 hours, but was called off midway after Jaigaon police intervened.

“We have started a case against Poddar under Sections 406 and 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust),” said Achinto Gupto, the officer-in-charge of the Jaigaon police station.

“If Poddar is not arrested and our garden is not opened within a week, we will call a 72-hour strike,” said Citu leader Madan Sarki.

On September 3, three directors of the company that owns Kohinoor Tea Garden in Samuktala surrendered in court after they were accused of defaulting on provident fund dues.

Source: The Telegraph

Locked out tea garden workers receive aid

More than 2,500 workers of Kalchini and Raimatang tea estates today received Rs 2,750 each under the Financial Assistance for Workers of Locked Out Industry scheme.

The funds had been pending since March. Initially the amount was Rs 500 per month. From April, the allowance was increased to Rs 750. Both the gardens have been closed since February 2006 and the workers became eligible for assistance from March this year.

Shavik Lama, a worker of Kalchini tea estate, said though they were happy about the allowance, it was not a permanent solution. “We want the garden to open as it is only then that we will get benefits like electricity, ration and, of course, regular wages.”

Source: The Telegraph

Tea Managers forced to leave tea garden

Two members of the management at Dalsinghpara Tea Estate were forced by workers to leave the garden after they failed to pay up their monthly dues.

Garden manager Jagannath Mahato and factory-in-charge Govind Purohit came to their office around 8am and were immediately confronted by workers. Supporters of unions affiliated to the UTUC, the Intuc and the Citu jointly demanded this month’s wages, revision of pay scale and arrears.

The duo admitted that they did not have the funds to pay the dues and pleaded helplessness in not being able to get in touch with company officials in Calcutta.

According to Sankar Ghosh of the UTUC-affiliated North Bengal Cha Bagan Employees Union, the two men were told to march to the bus stand 500m away where there were phone booths. They were accompanied by over 300 garden workers.

“Once there, they called up the office of Octavius Tea and Industries Ltd, which owns the garden. After the call they said the management would not be able to send funds before next week,” Ghosh said.

The leaders present then decided that they would not allow the two officials to return to the garden and reportedly forced the duo on to a bus and asked them to leave.

“We had no options but to ask them to leave as the company has been failing to pay up the wages and the arrears after repeated promises,” Ghosh said. “Earlier the wages were paid regularly on the fourth of each month. This month we allowed them time till the tenth. When they did not pay us our dues even on August 14 we stopped the despatch of tea from the factory.”

The president of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers, Kalatush Kullu, said the company owed the workers nearly Rs 4 crore in provident fund and gratuity dues, wage arrears, ration and medical bills.

Police said the two managers had gone to the Jaigaon police station to register a complaint.

“We tried to tell the unions today that about 25,000 kg of tea was awaiting despatch and this payment would be made by August 22. But they are not willing to listen to us and instead we were insulted. The plucked leaf is lying unweighed since 7am today. There are no security arrangements in the garden,” Mahato said.

Till late in the evening the two managers were still at the police station.

Source: The Telegraph

Furious tea workers wage meeting

Nine persons were injured when a section of workers of the closed Bharnobari tea estate, 16 km from here, beat them up during a wage meeting this morning.

Among the nine were two children and four women workers, who had opposed the new wage structure that was announced today. The remaining three were members of an NGO, who were conducting a training programme in another part of the garden.

The attackers, owing allegiance to a financier, also ransacked a clinic run by Child in Need Institute (Cini). A complaint has been lodged with the Hashimara police outpost, 3 km from the garden. Cini, which was running a nutritional programme for children, has decided to withdraw its Bharnobari unit.

Rupan Mahali, one of the injured women, said today’s meeting was held to discuss the new wage set-up proposed by Suresh and Naresh Agarwals, the financiers who have offered to run the garden instead of the operations and maintenance committee (OMC). The garden with a workforce of 2,100 had closed down in 2005.

“We opposed their offer as we were already getting Rs 50 from the OMC as against the Rs 45 they had proposed. But the minute we dismissed the proposal, some workers from among us, all men, started beating us,” said Mahali who is also a leader of the Jalpaiguri-Hashimara Adivasi Mahila Sudhar Samity.

“These men claimed they had formed a new committee and that the Agarwals would pay us wages from May 7 to December,” added Mahali. Like her, many women at the garden feel that in the absence of a legitimate owner, the financiers were fighting among themselves to take possession of the plucked tealeaves. “In the process, they are making us victims,” said Sita Lohar, who was also injured.

Some workers on conditions of anonymity said a section of OMC members might have got money for backing the new financiers. “Otherwise, why will they go for lower wages?” a worker asked. Madan Sarki, the OMC convener admitted that a section of workers within the committee were backing the Agarwals.

Tushar Bhattacharya, a spokesman for Cini, said: “They have attacked three of our members and taken away Rs 25,000 in cash. This was the first garden where we had started the project, but we will not work here anymore.”

Joseph Kujur, an OMC member, who has been named by some workers as the mastermind of today’s attack, was unavailable for comment.

Source: The Telegraph

Probe against Operating and Maintenance Committee

Jaigaon: The Jalpaiguri district administration has decided to probe into allegations levelled by workers of Surendra Nagar Tea Estate against the operating and maintenance committee (OMC) running the garden.

A large number of workers gathered for a meeting within the garden yesterday and alleged that members of the Citu-controlled OMC were underpaying them and not allowing the owner Rabin Paul to enter the estate.

“I have asked A. Das, the officer-in-charge of elections, to visit the garden next week and submit a report to me,” said Jalpaiguri district magistrate R. Ranjit.

In another incident, Asha Kheria, 21, a worker of the Beech tea garden, committed suicide by hanging herself in the kitchen of her house this afternoon. Asha’s neighbour Dhuba Thapa said ever since the garden shut down last Sunday, Asha’s husband, Silisti, had left to look for work in Bhutan. The woman had been without food since then, Thapa claimed. The body has been sent for post-mortem.

Source: The Telegraph

Tea Workers stand by the owners

Jaigaon: Workers of the Carron tea estate, which was battered by two hailstorms last week, have decided to stand by the management in this time of crisis.

They will work for three days per week instead of six for the next one month so that the management can save on wages and utilise the money to get the garden back into shape.

The estate is located in the Nagracata block of Alipurduar subdivision.

“When the garden had shut down in 2000, we were forced to work as boulder breakers in adjoining Bhutan as the operation and maintenance committee never paid us properly,” said Saniya Proja, a worker. “The new owner took over in 2004 and now the hailstorms have struck. For our own sake, we would rather work less so that the estate can recover.”

The manager of the estate, Utpal Lahiri, said following the workers’ decision, the garden will remain open from Monday to Wednesday. “We will continue like this for a month or so. If the bushes recover by then, regular work will resume,” Lahiri added.

The managing director of Basu Tea Private Limited, P. K. Basu, said over phone from Calcutta that he was very pleased by the workers’ gesture. “I thank them for their concern. I am proud that the workers and the unions have decided to help nurse the garden back to health,” he said.

Basu added that no bipartite or tripartite meeting was required to arrive at this decision. “This is a unique decision in the history of the tea industry. We will be able to save over Rs 4 lakh in the next month, thanks to the labourers,” he said.

With tea bushes in 290 hectares of the 300-hectare plantation damaged, Basu said the management needed medicine, fertiliser and pesticide worth a huge sum to turn things around.

Source: The Telegraph

District Adm on tea workers side

The district administration has taken strong exception to the functioning of the Ringtang tea garden, 7 km from Sonada, and has directed the management to submit a plan of action to stop “exploitation” of workers there.

Ever since the garden factory was razed to the ground by criminals on December 19, 1996, the estate is being run by a workers’ committee, which pays the 900 odd workers a sum of Rs 10 for every kilogram of green leaves they pluck daily. Of this, only Rs 9 per kg is actually reaching the workers as the committee keeps the rest as transportation charges.

This system has been in place for the past 11 years and though the management has not declared a lockout in the garden, it has not fulfilled statutory obligations like providing ration and healthcare to workers during the entire period.

Instead, the management is involved in the present set-up as technical advisers to the workers’ committee. The factory has not been rebuilt and labourers are without wages and other benefits. Not only that, there have been allegations that the committee in connivance with the management sells the leaves at four times the price paid to workers.

During a meeting convened at his office here today, Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey questioned the legality of the set-up and directed Sushil Chowdhury, the owner of the garden, to comply with certain guidelines.

“We have asked him to submit a plan of action by April 20. The labour department has also been asked to look into whether the payment of Rs 9 is justifiable and work out future modalities. The owner has been asked to start the construction of the factory and we have promised to provide him all possible assistance,” Pandey said.

The plan of action is expected to designate places in the garden where the new factory and bungalows will be set up. Pandey also maintained that they wanted to know where the rest of the money (after paying the workers Rs 10 per kg) went.

Source: The Telegraph

Asim's sops mismatch tea solution

A slew of sops announced by Asim Dasgupta in Jalpaiguri yesterday has produced mixed reactions.

While workers have refused “to be taken in” by the finance minister’s aid schemes, planters have protested against the “coercive action” suggested by Dasgupta against them.

“We are not ready to be taken in by his promises till they are implemented,” said Biplab Sarkar, an employee of the closed Bharnobari tea estate today. “We want to see if the minister keeps his word.”

The minister has sanctioned Rs 16 crore for closed estates for the next three months and if at the end of the period there is no breakthrough, another allotment would be made.

Dasgupta had also said the state would soon, in association with the provident funds department, initiate action against planters who have fled from estates leaving crores as PF dues.

These two major announcements apart, Dasgupta has also promised a host of aid schemes for the workers.

But all these could not convince Sania Bhumij of Raipur, another closed estate. “The declarations mean nothing to us till some concrete benefits trickle in,” Bhumij said. “There were others who had visited the gardens earlier, but nothing came out of them.”

Residents at Redbank, where Dasgupta went yesterday, however, spoke differently. “Officials of the relief department have started working for the distribution of foodgrain,” said Debabrata Pal, the head clerk of the estate. “Even the process of assessing the repair cost of houses has started.”

Notwithstanding the Rs 16 crore fund, the suggestion of punitive action has not gone down well with the planters. “We feel any coercive action will only lead to adverse reaction,” said N.K. Basu, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association. “The government should think about the situations that prompted some planters to abandon their property.”

Chitta Dey, the convener of the Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers, has welcomed Dasgupta’s efforts, but added: “We want the chief minister and his colleagues to monitor the progress of the plans spelt out by the finance minister.”

Source: The Telegraph

Tea Workers paid their dues

More than 4,000 workers from three closed tea gardens in the Dooars were paid their dues today under the 100-days employment guarantee scheme.

Kalchini gram panchayat pradhan Prem Kumar Lama handed out nearly Rs 20 lakh to 4,112 workers of Raimatang, Chinchula and Kalchini estates. “We are paying them wages for seven days of work from February 15,” said Lama. “Each of them received Rs 476.”

Kalchini and Raimatang have been shut since February 2006 while Chinchula closed down in November 2005.

Unit president of National Union of Plantation Workers at Chinchula Anjukush Minj said: “We have been sanctioned 14 days’ work for renovating the garden’s drainage system and pruning the tea bushes. But we need another 50 days to complete maintenance activities.”

Garden work has been included in the 100-days employment scheme at the insistence of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Source: The Telegraph

Two more deaths at Bharnobari Tea Estate

Bharnobari Tea Estate (Alipurduar): Even as some funds trickled into Raimatang, Chinchula and Kalchini tea estates, the condition of the locked-out Bharnobari continues to be as bleak as ever.

Two persons have died at the Bharnobari estate over the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 72 since its closure in December 2005.

Laxman Munda (48) of Bharnobari out-division died yesterday, while Binu Kharia (32), a resident of Jonathan line, died this morning. According to medical reports, both were suffering from malnutrition. Binu used to stay all by himself as his wife, Jayanti, works in Delhi and their son stays with a relative.

With the 2,250 labourers not getting paid for more than a year, the families can hardly hope to have one square meal a day, let alone treatment for ailments. Six residents here, including three children were admitted to the Latabari health centre yesterday suffering from malnutrition.

Just to make ends meet, a few labourers have been forced to take up jobs in dolomite quarries in Bhutan, while some others have left for other parts of the country for work.

Tapan Nag, the secretary of Swadhikar, an NGO, said: “Under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, workers of closed gardens are supposed to get 100 days’ work, but labourers here got work for 26 days only and received wages for 21 days.”

According to Nag, Antyodaya cards have not been distributed among labourers as a result of which everyone is not getting equal amount of foodgrain. P.D. Pradhan, the subdivisional officer, however, said: “Though the cards have not been distributed, the workers have been receiving ration regularly.”

A team of Krishi Jami Raksha Committee from Calcutta visited the garden today as part of their survey of closed estates in the Dooars.

Source: The Telegraph