No cash, tea labourers cease work

TT, Nov. 12: Labourers at a tea estate in Alipurduar district skipped work today alleging non-payment of wages, a chronic problem that has been aggravated by the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Workers at Turturi Tea Estate, which employs 500 labourers, alleged they had not received wages for the past three fortnights and that the management was now pleading helplessness citing the restrictions on withdrawals from banks. The workers said their wage dues totalled around Rs 15 lakh.

Tea garden workers are paid in cash. "The workers are yet to get their wages for the past three fortnights. The management had promised to pay them after Diwali but did not," said Jibanmasi Oraon, a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad-backed Progressive Tea Workers' Union.

"Now the managerial staff are saying they do not have enough cash because of the restrictions on withdrawals."

The workers said that production was continuing despite the non-payment of wages, and the management had been dispatching tea for auction.

"When production and sale are normal, we fail to understand what is stopping the management from making the payments," Oraon said.

Representatives of the Dooars unit of the Indian Tea Association, of which Turturi is a member, said the problem was not unique to the garden.

"The entire tea industry is facing a cash crunch because of the cap on withdrawals (Rs 10,000 daily, subject to a maximum of Rs 20,000 a week)," said S. Guhathakurta, the association's Dooars secretary.

"If a tea estate sells tea through an auction, the money is transferred online, which does not solve the problem," Guhathakurta said.