Darjeeling tea garden stalemate- 6 November meet to discuss

SNS, DARJEELING. 1 NOV 2019: With solution to the deadlock in the Singtom tea garden in Darjeeling nowhere in sight, the Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC), Deep Narayan Bhandari, has called a tripartite meeting on 6 November to discuss the problems and seek solutions.

The garden workers are still not going to work, and have been demanding fulfillment of their various demands. They halted work on 24 October after the trade union of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha. Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labor Union, Singtom unit, protested against the management's decision to deduct wages for eight hours in total on account of the unrest in the garden. when the workers agitated for the Puja bonus demand.

"Workers are still not going to work and a meeting has been called on 6 November to sort out the matter at the ALC office. We are not expecting much from the meeting as we feel that the owners will not attend it. We, along with the other trade unions, will attend the meeting," said the DTDPW Singtom unit president,Anuk Tamang.

Mr Tamang maintained that the tea garden workers have also not gone to work in the resort that is run by the garden management there. The resort has four moms.

The trade union is further alleging that there have been talks doing the rounds that the garden management will not give work to the garden workers for four months in the winter. The union has protested the same and has also been demanding that the workers not made to work for nine hours, as, according to it, they are supposed to work for only eight hours a day. The trade union is also demanding that the second instalment of the Puja bonus be paid soon.

The Singtom tea garden is about 12 km from Darjeeling town and has around 850 workers.