Garden bonus delay in hills

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling: Nearly half of the Darjeeling tea gardens have failed to pay bonus to workers before Diwali as had been agreed during a tripartite meeting with the state labour department.

The planters had agreed to pay bonus at 19.75 per cent in two equal instalments. While the first instalment was supposed to be paid before October 18, the remaining was slated after Diwali.

The bonus for a particular year is calculated on the basis of the revenue earned in the previous year. On an average, a worker gets around Rs 7,000 as bonus at the agreed rate.

While the tea planters cited the massive losses suffered by the gardens because of the four months of agitation in the hills, the workers pointed out that there was no such disruption last year and the gardens earned good revenue.

"It is true that the bonus is calculated on the last financial year. But the garden pays the bonus with the revenue generated this year. The industry is in dire straits, with no production for almost four months," a planter said.

There are 87-odd tea gardens that sell the "Darjeeling Tea". The industry employs 55,000 permanent workers. "In some cases, gardens would also hypothecate their crop for loans if revenues were not adequately generated. This, too, was not possible as most of the crop was lost this year," the planter added.

(Source & Courtesy: https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/garden-bonus-delayin-hills-179884)