Minister set for wage talks with tea planters

SNS, Siliguri, 30 October 2014: State labour minister Malay Ghatak has called a bipartite meeting with tea planters in his chamber tomorrow to finalize a tea workers’ wage settlement before convening a tripartite meeting shortly, a senior departmental official said today. Mr Ghatak held such a meeting twice with planters under the banner of ‘Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations,’ but the talks turned a dud.

However, leaders of the Joint Forum, consisting of 21 trade unions associated with tea plantations in the Terai, Dooars and the Hills, have planned to inform the state government of their agitation, demanding a wage structure.

The Forum will begin a convention from 1 November and start demonstrating from 7 November and then go on an industrial strike and general strike on 11 and 12 November respectively.

“We want to discuss the matter with the state government ethically before launching the stir against planters and the state. We are planning to inform the state government of our stand,” a Forum leader and former Rajya Sabha member, Saman Pathak, said.

“The state should not be a referee. It should come forward to take a proper decision. We are worried about the labour minister’s decision to hold a series of bipartite meetings with planters. The state is trying to break our unity. But still, we are demanding a wage structure for tea workers,” Mr Pathak said. Joint labour commissioner Md Rizwan, mwanwhile, said: “Our departmental minister has called a bipartite meeting with the planters tomorrow. We hope that the next tripartite meeting will be held soon to resolve the wage problem.”

However, Alok Chakraborty, the working president of the Inttuc-backed Trinamul Tea Plantation Workers’ Union, said it is high time the Forum accepted the state government’s wage hike proposals.

“The Joint Forum is doing politics by exploiting tea workers and their demands. We conducted a survey where our workers noticed that the workers will happily accept a hike of more than 40 per cent on the present rate,” he said.

Trinamul sources said tomorrow’s discussions are important in settling the wages issue and in finding out a suitable method to finalize the rate of increment.

It may be noted that 42 percent wage was increased through a tripartite meeting three years ago.

Trinamul sources said the state is determined to increase the wages at least at the same rate as last year, based on the present rate.

“But planters want to increase 42 percent on Rs 90 per worker a day, not Rs 95,” the sources said.

Notably, in the last agreement, tea workers in the Terai and the Dooars got Rs 85 (from Rs 67) in the first year and Rs 90 and Rs 95 for the second and third year. Planters want to accept the average rate of Rs 90 (Rs 85+90+95 = Rs 270 / 3 = Rs 90).