Garden work halt over bonus - Owner puts up suspension notice

Workers of Madhu tea garden in front of financer Goyel’s house on Tuesday. Pic: Anirban Choudhury

Workers of Madhu tea garden in front of financer Goyel’s house on Tuesday. Pic: Anirban Choudhury

TT, Alipurduar, Sept. 23: Around 700 labourers of a tea estate in Alipurduar district stopped work today, demanding that they be given the full bonus in one go on September 27, and not in two instalments as the management had announced.

Late tonight, the management put up notices at Jaigaon police station and Hashimara police outpost announcing suspension of work at Madhu tea estate, near Kalchini. Garden manager Amal Majumdar said a similar notice would be put up in the garden tomorrow.

A couple of days back, the management put up a notice in the garden, saying the bonus would be paid in two instalments — one part on September 27, the other in December. The management cited a financial crunch.

This morning, over 700 workers of the garden gathered outside the estate finacer’s house in Kalchini, 8km from the garden, and demanded the full bonus on September 27.

The Madhu tea estate is one of 28 gardens among the total 175 in the Dooars that has been exempted from paying workers a bonus at the rate of 20 per cent of the annual wage.

The exemption has been allowed to the managements of those estates that saw closures, natural calamity or financial problems last year that affected production.

In the Madhu tea estate, the rate of the bonus is 12 per cent of the annual wage.

The protest outside the financer’s house continued for six hours. No work was done at the garden today.

Manager Majumdar spoke to financer Gopal Goyel, and Goyel asked the workers to wait till 11am so that he could look into the matter.

The gherao started around 10.30am and continued till 4pm.

Sunil Oraon, a garden unit leader of the Adivasi Vikas Parishad-backed Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, said: “At a bonus meeting (held in Calcutta on August 31) it was decided that we will get bonus at the rate of 12 per cent. Now, the management is saying the bonus would be paid in two instalments. Why will we accept that when the amount is already low?”

He added: “We will discuss the issue and decide on what to do next. We have informed the administration about the situation.”

The garden is owned by Diabari Tea Company Limited and has 950 permanent workers. The garden manager left the garden after the gherao started.

“I had told the workers that bonus would be paid in two instalments. They did not agree to that. Today, instead of going to work, they went to Goyel’s house. I have left the garden as I felt insecure,” Majumdar said.

Today, in front of Goyel’s house, the workers shouted slogans demanding full bonus and talks with Goyel.

The financer did not speak to the workers.

A section of workers informed Chandrasen Khati, the block development officer of Kalchini, about the protest and Khati requested a tripartite meeting (of the administration, management and workers) to discuss the issue in his office today.

No one represented the management’s side at the meeting and it ended without any result.

Khati said: “I have informed the subdivisional officer of Alipurduar about the situation in Madhu estate and I have asked the workers to maintain peace in the garden.”

It is not the first time that the garden has seen such an agitation.