TEA unions make plans before wage talks

SNS, Siliguri, 5 August 2014: The Joint Forum of tea workers’ unions will hold a meeting at Nagrakata in the Dooars tomorrow to chalk out plans ahead of the fifth round of tripartite wage hike talks scheduled to be held at Uttarkanya on 7-8 August.

The forum has said it will launch an agitation if the matter is not settled in the fifth round of talks and if both the planters and the state government do not show interest in fulfilling the demands of tea workers.

“We are expecting that the state government would follow the recommendation of the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) for tea workers’ wages in Assam and Bengal.”

“We are expecting positive results in the fifth round of two-day tripartite wage hike talks because the principal secretary of the labour department, Amal Roy Chowdhury, highlighted the issue in the fourth round of talks based on the backup of the IMG following its meeting, which was held on 14 January after the Central government had constituted the Tripartite Committee of Plantation in May 2013,” general secretary of the All India Plantation Workers’ Federation, Ziaul Alam, said.

The Forum has demanded basic minimum wages and variable dearness allowance (VDA) at a time the IMG has said that the workers in Bengal and Assam get poor wages as compared to other states.

Mr Alam also expressed happiness after Congress, Trinamul Congress and CPI-M MPs–Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Kakali Ghosh Dastidar and Md Salim respectively highlighted the problem of tea workers and tea plantations in north Bengal in the Parliament yesterday.

Interestingly, the spirit of the speeches the three leaders made in the House regarding the present problems in tea plantations was the same.

They pointed out that the Plantation Labour Act 1951 and the Tea Act 1953 are being violated, but the Centre has not yet taken any initiative.

Mr Alam also hinted that a delegation from north Bengal would meet Union Commerce and Industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi tentatively on 13 August.

Darjeeling MP and BJP leader SS Ahluwalia has also taken initiatives to discuss the present situation of tea industries and workers’ plight in Delhi.