48-hour cease work in Duncans garden - Unions demand clearance of dues

Nagaisuree Tea Estate

TT, Jalpaiguri, May 18: Trade unions backed by the CPM, Congress and Trinamul jointly announced a 48-hour cease work on Nagaisuree Tea Estate owned by the Duncans' Goenka Group from today demanding immediate payment of workers' dues.

Nagaisuree in Jalpaiguri is not among the group's seven estates acquired by the Centre.

"The management has not paid wages for three weeks since March this year. Also, provident fund, gratuity and rations have been due since 2014. We have repeatedly asked the managerial staff to start clearing the dues but no initiative has been taken," Chamu Oraon, a Citu leader of the garden, said today.

"We launched a 48 hours' cease work from 7am today and none of the workers have joined their duties. If the management does not start clearing the dues within 48 hours, we will be forced to launch a movement," he added.

Along with labourers of other tea gardens owned by the had been Duncans group, workers of Nagaisuree were without jobs for more than a year.

On March 27, work resumed in the garden.

The estate in Metelli block, 50km from here, has around 1,200 permanent workers and 1,800 casual labourers.

According to the trade union leaders, the management is yet to clear provident fund dues amounting to Rs 2.50 crore.

"They have not paid gratuity to the retired workers, which is around Rs 68 lakh, and not distributed rations for several fortnights. Also, wages of three weeks (around Rs 4 lakh) have been due since March," the Citu leader said.

Ravi Oraon, a leader of the Trinamul-backed Terai Dooars Plantation Workers' Union, said with the dues increasing, the workers are having to face hardships. "The manner in which the dues were piling up, it has become tough for the workers. The situation has become so bad that we have been forced to take the decision to call the cease work," he added.

Intuc's Laxman Oraon said the management has not deposited the insurance premium for the workers. "The production in the garden is normal and yet, the management is not taking any step to clear the dues," he said. "We have informed the management and the subdivisional administration in Malbazar about our decision to launch the cease work," he added.

The management representatives said they were trying to clear the dues.

"A section of workers is not allowing us to send green tealeaves outside the garden for sale. Around 15,000kg of leaves are in the garden and we suspect that we cannot sell them as they are perishable," C.P. Kapoor, the superintending manager of Nagaisuree, said.

"Our company has financial constraints but despite that, we are trying to run the garden normally and we have made some payments. We want to clear the dues at the earliest but we have to arrange for funds by selling tealeaves. If workers stop us from sending tealeaves outside, it would be a fresh problem for us. We hope the workers and the trade unions will co-operate with us," he added.

Kapoor alleged that some workers had threatened the assistant managers at Nagaisuree and asked them to leave the garden.

The union leaders denied the allegations.

An official in the subdivisional office in Malbazar said they were busy with the election process. "But we will surely look into the issue."