Panel acknowledges Forum Tea wage proposals.... Tea wage group piles pressure

SNS, SILIGURI, 23 AUGUST 2018: The 12th Minimum Wages Advisory Committee meeting, which was held at the New Secretariat in Kolkata today, and presided by state labour minister Malay Ghatak, adopted several resolutions to settle minimum wages for tea workers.

Minister Ghatak urged both the planters and trade union leaders to "minimize" the differences of opinion through interaction so that the state government can take proper steps to draw a conclusion over the issue.

The house finally acknowledged proposals submitted by the Joint Forum, a conglomeration of over 23 trade unions, on 6 August at Uttarkanya, sources said., adding, "That was also handed over to the planters for examination."

The industry representatives stated that the government had already placed a framework in 2015 tor the calculation of minimum wages and this frame work was revised in the meeting held at Uttarkanya on 6 August 2018. Therefore, the framework should comprise the basis for calculation of minimum wages, an official source said.

"The next MWAC meeting may be held in the third week of September. Trade unions have been asked to furnish their proposals on it within 4 September. The government shall circulate the paper received from them. Planters will also examine them and will inform the government about their views within 15 days. After that, the labour department will convene the 13th MWAC meeting" sources said. The industry also cited the legal opinion on the consumption units and sought for early resolution, official sources added.

"The industry made a strong pitch on its inability to pay the interim wages as articulated in the meeting of 16 August 2018, unless the template for productivity issue is also laid down," said Secretary General of Tea Association of India (TAI), PK Bhattacharjee.

It may be recalled that on 16 August, the labour minister had asked planters to pay its 176 day to tea workers with effect from October this year.

Although state machineries are allegedly trying to swoop down on a group of trade unions, which have been demanding implementation of the Minimum Wage Act for tea workers, a pressure group involving many people from different fields is actively campaigning on the wage issue.

An organisation, virtually a citizen forum, named Chyaa Bagaan Sangrarn Samity (CBSS), has started working on tea plantations and workers' socio-economic development. The CBSS started as a magazine named 'Laali Gurans (rhododendron) in the Nepali language in 2015. The group has now started awareness campaigns among tea workers about the Minimum Wages Act and their right to legitimate claims covering the Bengal and Assam tea belts.

Significantly, as the Darjeeling police allegedly registered cases against 11 Hill leaders for staging a demonstration at Sonada on 9 August, after the three-day plantation strike from 7 August in north Bengal, a group of students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) responded to the tea workers' continuous struggle by sending a 'solidarity message.'

JNU students discussed the ongoing tea movement here and other states by screening a short documentary named 'The Song of Margaret's Hope' and other movement-related clippings in Delhi. At the Sabarmati Mess in Delhi on 21 August JNU students also discussed the ongoing struggle of tea garden workers, despite" repression from the state and sabotage from ruling party trade unions in north Bengal."

JNU students discussed that the daily wages for workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is Rs 191, and the minimum wages is around Rs 260 for an unskilled worker, as compared to tea workers' wages from 1983 to 2018 in Bengal.

"Students and scholars from tea producing states like Bengal, Assam and Kerala were speakers there, and they supported to the movement in Assam and Bengal," sources said.

It may be noted here that tea workers observed a strike in Assam on 20 August, demanding minimum wages.

"We are an organisation comprising people from different fields, who are sympathetic to the righteous demands of tea plantation workers. We are now carrying out campaigning at several tea gardens in this region on the legitimate rights of the workers and their legal and statistical justification," Joint Convener of the CBSS, Samit Chakraborty, said.

"We are also conveying a message to the people in the academic and cultural fields and seeking their support tor the workers' movement led by the Joint Forum, a conglomeration of several trade unions," he said.

CBSS members also conducted opinion polls in and around Kurseong town and almost all the respondents supported the wage demand.

"Wages a little over Rs 150 is too less after working from 8 am till 4 pm. Tea workers have to pay Rs 150 as vehicle fare only if they want to come to Kurseong for some work and go back in a day," a common Man interviewed by the CBSS said.

All workers in other sector are getting minimum wages, like in the cinchona plantation. Only the tea sector is left out, another man opined.

"Absolutely, they should also be given ration and medicines and health facilities. Why should only owners earn ? Shouldn't workers also earn something?" another respondent said,

A Kurseong based woman who owns a store showed a tea packet in her shop and said: "This issue is like going back to the Lincoln era of slavery. I sell tea leaf packets myself. Look, this 100 grams of white tea packet costs Rs 225. So these guys (planters) must be making good money"

"What minimum wages? Tea workers should be given maximum wages," she added.