Call for early tea bonus talks

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 10 Nov 2019, Darjeeling: Hill tea trade unions on Saturday threw broad hints that they would press for bonus negotiations immediately after the end of the fiscal year rather than the norm of holding talks a month before Durga Puja.

The demand for early talks was raised a day after the date for the disbursement of the second bonus installment was finalised in Calcutta. It has been agreed that the remaining 8 per cent of the 20 per cent bonus will be given out by December 22.

Sunil Rai, a member of the Joint Forum, a conglomeration of more than 25 tea trade unions, said: "Why can't the bonus negotiations start in April, immediately after the end of the financial year? We would want talks to start in April next yearThe demand for early talks stems from the fact that workers in the Darjeeling hills had to go without bonus this Puja. This was largely because the talks, which started a month before the festivities, remained inconclusive.

The onus of calling the meeting lies with the industry's association. In the hills, it is usually the Darjeeling Tea Association that calls the bonus meeting.

"The unions, in fact, the workers are the most important stakeholders of the industry. If they want early talks, why can't it take place?" said Rai, asked if the management would agree to early talks next year.

Observers believe that the unions are stressing for talks in April because this is the period of plucking of the first and early second flush. These two flushes of Darjeeling Tea com- mand the highest prices. "I think the unions believe that they would have an upper hand during negotiations held during this period," said an observer.

This year, too, the unions had stopped the dispatch of made tea when negotiations had failed. "However, if the dispatch of tea during this period is stopped, it would create immense problems for the industry," said an observer.

Even when the Puja arrived, the unions could do little apart from calling a general strike in the hills as the management stood firm on their inability to pay bonus at the rate of 20 per cent as demanded by the unions.

The Darjeeling Tea Association cited a slump of 22 per cent in exports last year and a 50 per cent fall in production over the past two decades to carry their brief that the industry cannot pay 20 per cent bonus this year.

A tea official had earlier said: "In 2018, our exports were down by 22 per cent. In 1995, the Darjeeling Tea industry produced 14 million kg of made tea. The production figure for 2018 was 7.5 millionGorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Binay Tamang sat for an indefinite hunger strike in Darjeeling during the Puja, but after six days of hunger strike another round of meetings was called on October 11, 2019.

At the meeting it was decided that the bonus would be paid at 20 per cent of a worker's annual earning but in installments of 12 and 8 per cent. While the first installment was to be paid immediately, the date for disbursement of the second was to be decided at a meeting to be held in November.