Tea bonus for plains fixed

TT, Alipurduar: The rate of bonus for tea workers serving in the estates of the Dooars and the Terai was finalised on Sunday.

This year, the tea workers will get bonus at the rate of 19.5 per cent, which is marginally less than the last year's rate of 19.75 per cent. The decision was taken at the second bipartite meeting held at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industries office in Calcutta.

The first round of talks was held on September 16 but ended without any conclusion as trade unions had been insisting 20 per cent bonus.

According to tea industry sources, out of 167 gardens in the Dooars and the Terai, bonus will be paid at 19. 5 per cent rate in 119 gardens. In rest of the 48 gardens, which have been identified sick due to financial incapacity of the concerned companies, bonus will be paid at 9.5 per cent.

"Trade unions had initially demanded that the bonus should not be less than last year but they could realise the crisis that the industry is facing due to certain reasons and assented to 19.5 per cent," said R.A. Sharma, secretary of the Tea Association of India, Dooars branch.

Tea trade unions also sounded satisfactory over the decision. "There is some distress in the industry. The number of sick gardens has increased to 48 as compared to 33 last year. We have, thus, agreed to a rate that is not much low for the workers and at the same time is not inconvenient for tea planters," said Prabhat Mukherjee, vice president of Cha Bagan Trinamul Congress Mazdoor Union.

The bonus for tea workers in the hills, however, would be fixed through a separate bipartite meeting, said sources.