Cry for tea wage panel time frame - Unions to ask government to give details of committee on minimum pay

TT, Siliguri, Nov. 14: Tea garden workers’ unions today said they would ask the state government to provide details of the proposed committee to make suggestions on minimum wages and set a time frame for the panel to complete the task and implement the recommendations.

Chitta Dey, the convenor of the Co-ordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers, a conglomeration of 18 unions, said details of the committee would be sought at a meeting at Uttarkanya here on Monday.

“We (unions) have been called to a meeting by the state labour department at Uttarkanya in Siliguri on November 17 to discuss the revision of tea garden workers’ daily wages. We will attend the meeting and seek information from labour department officials about the committee to be formed by the state government to fix minimum wages for the industry,” said Dey.

Earlier this month, labour minister Malay Ghatak had said names for the committee had been finalised and sent to the chief minister’s office for approval. He had said representatives of trade unions, planters, government officials and some others would be included in the committee.

Exerting more pressure on the government, the unions said they would ask the state to set a time frame for the committee to forward the recommendations and the state to implement them.

“Our principal demand is fixing of minimum wage in the tea industry, to which the state and the Centre seem to be giving impetus now. On November 17, we will ask the officials to provide us with the names of those who are considered for the minimum wage committee. We will also ask the officials to set a time frame for the panel to moot the recommendations to the government and give an assurance that the state would implement the same immediately. We apprehend that the announcement of minimum tea wages will be delayed if no time is fixed for the committee to complete the task,” said Dey.

A joint forum of 23 unions, except that of the Trinamul Congress, was formed to fight for the speedy revision of wages and fixing a minimum pay.

Another trade union leader in the Dooars who didn’t want to be named said the wage revision, as and when it was finalised, would be for a temporary period.

“There is no question of changing our demand for the minimum wages. However, it is evident that even if the state acts promptly to form the committee and it takes up the task of fixing the minimum wages, it would take some time. On the other hand, tea workers have been still earning wages at old rates (Rs 95 per day in the plains and Rs 90 in the hills) since April 1 this year. At the next meeting on Monday, we will seek immediate revision of wages, but it will be in force till the minimum wages are fixed and notified,” he said.

The tea wages are otherwise revised for a period of three years.

The labour department has already convened six meetings with trade unions and planters to work out a hike in the pay but no decision could be taken. While the planters have proposed a hike of Rs 30, the state has suggested that the increase could be Rs 40. Both the planters and the government suggested that the wage hike could be staggered over three years.

“We are not setting a specific rate but want the increase to be acceptable to us. An appaling increase of Rs 30 or Rs 40, as has been proposed by the planters and the government, cannot be accepted. The labour department must make it clear that the new wage would be applicable only till the minimum pay is notified and not beyond that,” said a leader of the INTUC-backed National Union of Plantation Workers.

“If the revision is further delayed, we will launch another movement and this time, it might be even an indefinite strike in the tea industry.”

Tea planters said the 48-hour tea strike observed across north Bengal on November 11 and 12 had led to a loss of around Rs 30 crore.

“We have put forward certain proposals on the wage hike and are keen to resolve the matter at the earliest. Trade union leaders should sit across the table and come up with proposals which the industry can accept,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary general of the Tea Association of India.