Bonus talks for gardens

TT, Aug. 27: Tea trade unions in the Terai and Dooars today said they would ask planters to pay a compensatory allowance along with bonus to the workers at the bipartite meeting scheduled to be held in Calcutta in a couple of days.

Trade unions in gardens across north Bengal would demand a bonus above 20 per cent, sources said.

“Bipartite talks on the bonus would be held in Calcutta on August 30 and 31. We want the planters to pay bonus at a rate that is above 20 per cent in all four categories of estates in the Terai and Dooars. They would also have to pay compensatory allowance to workers as the wage rates have not been revised yet,” Ziaur Alam, the Jalpaiguri district Citu secretary, said today.

Tea gardens in the region are divided into four categories depending on the total production, number of workers and other parameters.

Bonus is calculated as a percentage of the current annual wage. While the daily wage is Rs 95 in the Terai and Dooars, in the hills, it is Rs 90. Last time the bonus in the gardens was 20 per cent of the annual wage.

If the revised rates were finalised, workers would have got more money as bonus, which is why they wanted the additional compensatory allowance. The allowance could fixed either on an ad hoc basis or as an additional percentage over and above the bonus.

“For example, if the bonus is fixed at 20 per cent and no decision on revised wage is reached by September, workers will get bonus on the existing wage of Rs 95 per day. Had the wages been revised with effect from April 1 this year, workers would have got a higher bonus. To compensate the workers, we want an additional sum — fixed either as an additional percentage over the bonus rate or as an ad hoc sum — to be paid,” said a union leader.

In the hills, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-backed Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union has also demanded bonus at a rate higher than 20 per cent. The date for bipartite talks to discuss hill bonus is yet to be fixed for the hills.

Chitta Dey, convenor of the Co-ordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers, said: “We would demand that the bonus be paid by the first week of September. We are hopeful that a decision on bonus would be reached during the talks.”

So far, six rounds of tripartite talks have been held to finalise tea wages across north Bengal but no decision has been reached. The state labour department is yet to fix the next date for further talks on the issue.

Planters said they expected a “realistic” proposal on bonus from the trade unions. “They should consider the industry’s situation, cost of production and prices in domestic and international markets and then place realistic demands,” a senior official of Indian Tea Planters’ Association, said.