Tea garden shut after bonus row

TT: Oct. 11: The management of Panighata tea estate yesterday announced suspension of work alleging lawless behaviour by labourers after garden authorities and the workers had a disagreement over the Puja bonus.

"There was a proposal that the management cannot pay the bonus at 20 per cent rate, which had been fixed for the industry through a bipartite settlement. We told the management to pay at the rate of 15 per cent before Durga Puja and agreed for talks before December, by which time the management needs to pay the remaining five per cent," said Rajen Mukhia, an INTTUC leader in Panighata that is in Darjeeling.

A section of workers said the garden managers left with their families as the owner did not want to pay the bonus.

Harihar Acharya, the Terai committee president of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-backed Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, said the management had also piled workers' arrears over the past few months. "Before the Durga Puja, when the workers eagerly wait for the bonus, the management has left the garden."

"We suspect that the decision is a tactical move by the management which wants to defer payment of the bonus and other dues of workers," said Acharya.

According to Acharya, the management has not been depositing the provident fund of workers with the provident fund authorities for several months. Also, the workers are yet to receive rations for 42 weeks.

"Even a portion of the current wages of the workers is due and the employees have not received their salaries for the month of September. The management has also not paid the arrears accrued after the wage rates were revised earlier this year. Now, the bonus is also due," Acharya said.

Tea industry sources said that on October 9, a bipartite meeting was held in Matigara, near Siliguri. There, the management had asked for a concessional rate for the bonus. It was decided that the owner would pay bonus at the rate of 15 per cent of the pay now.

The garden in Mirik employs 2,000 workers.

The union leaders said that on September 21, Subrata Saha, the manager, left the garden. "Some assistant managers were running the estate. But on October 9, the assistant managers also left," Mukhia said.

Representatives of the Tea Association of India (TAI), to which the Panighata garden is affiliated, said they had received a notice from the management announcing suspension of work. The management cited several reasons for the decision, "including activities by some workers which were affecting the garden," Sumit Ghosh, the additional secretary of association, said.

In Alipurudar's Dima Tea Estate, which was shut last Friday, the workers and the management have agreed to a bonus payment at the rate of 12 per cent of the salary. The garden may open tomorrow.

Tea death

A former worker of the closed Dharanipara tea estate in Jalpaiguri died yesterday of suspected malnourishment, although health officials have denied that to be the reason.