20% bonus for tea workers

SNS, 3 Sep 2014, Darjeeling, 1 September: The Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) has agreed on a 20 percent Puja bonus or the annual bonus for tea garden workers in Darjeeling Hills. The agreement was struck in the second meeting between trade unions and the DTA here today. 

“The DTA has agreed to pay 20 percent annual bonus to tea garden workers, irrespective of their grades,” Secretary of the Darjeeling Tarai Dooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU), Suraj Subba, said. 

A meeting between the DTA and seven tea garden unions of Darjeeling had yesterday ended in an inconclusive note. Though the DTA had agreed to give 20 percent to workers of grades A and B, 19 percent to grade C workers and 18 percent to grade D staff, the unions had rejected the offer. 

The DTA had reasoned that Darjeeling tea this year faced a drop in export orders, while it also witnessed a downfall in both production and sales. Workers in tea gardens in Darjeeling are categorized into four groups, A, B, C and D. 

In the 87 tea gardens in the Hills, there are approximately 55,000 permanent and 16,000 temporary workers. The Indian Tea Association follows the same bonus rate fixed by the DTA.