Ex-GJM neta for hike in tea minimum wage

TNN | Aug 21, 2018, DARJEELING: Fugitive leaders of the Bimal Gurung camp may be in hiding but are ensuring that their presence is felt in the the Hills.

On Monday, former GJM general secretary Roshan Giri in an audio message extended support to Joint Forum, a conglomeration of trade unions, and demanded that minimum wages of tea garden workers be fixed at Rs 353, including all fringe benefits. 

Giri said garden workers had always been denied their basic rights. “The history of the tea gardens in the Hills is heaped in atrocities, suppression and exploitation. From 1947 till 2007, the condition of the tea gardens was not good. The daily wage of the workers was Rs 62.50. However after GJM was formed in 2007, we took up the issue and managed to hike it to Rs 132. Now we want the minimum wage fixed at Rs 353,” he said from an undisclosed location.

He said the Sikkim and Tamil Nadu governments were working for the welfare of the workers and asked the Bengal government to adopt similar steps. “The teas from Sikkim and Tamil Nadu are not so popular, yet workers there are getting good daily wages. But the same cannot be said about Bengal and Assam,” Giri said.
(Source & Courtesy: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/ex-gjm-netafor-hike-in-tea-minimum-wage/articleshow/65480496.cms)