Work suspended in Darjeeling tea garden....LOW WAGES, ABSENTEEISM & DROP IN EXPORT POINT TO `SUNSET INDUSTRY'

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 15 February 2020, Darjeeling: One more estate producing world famous Darjeeling Tea has suspended work citing labourers' alleged indiscipline and other reasons, prompting planters to call the Darjeeling tea sector a "sunset industry".

The Happy Valley garden that issued a notice suspending the work on Friday is owned by Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Pvt Ltd. The notice talks about "compounding the financial distress of the company even further" by a section of workers.

"It is a rarity that work is hampered in three Darjeeling tea gardens during the current winter," said a tea planter.

The other two estates are Singla and Singtom. The Singla management also suspended the work because of labourers' alleged indiscipline. Labourers had stayed away from Singtom to protest the mode of bonus payment.

Although work-related issues are cited for the halt in the operations in the gardens, industry insiders said the underlining reason had always been the sector's deteriorating financial health.

The hills have 87 gardens which manufacture Darjeeling Tea. Around 55,000 permanent workers and 15,000 temporary labourers are associated with these estates.

The company that owns Happy Valley has 13 other plantations in the hills. The second largest group in the Darjeeling tea industry has been delaying in payment Factory of Happy Valley tea garden. File picture since 2019, betraying its financial stress.

"The annual made-tea production in 2019 was below 8 million kg but exports have gone down by 24 per cent since 2017. There is very little domestic market for Darjeeling Tea and this, too, is being taken over by Nepal tea which is being illegally imported by unscrupulous traders," said a source.

Fall in the export has been attributed to the fluid political situation in the hills. "Importers are finding the Darjeeling Tea to be unreliable in terms of supply and Nepal is stepping in to fill the vacuum," said another tea planter.

A person who had been attached to the sector for nearly two decades said the overwhelming feeling among the planters was that the "Darjeeling Tea sector is a sunset industry".

Workers' absenteeism has nearly touched the 50 per cent mark and the poor daily wage of Rs 174.50 is cited as the reason.

"The government and trade unions talk about minimum wages but no one is interested in ensuring minimum support price for the product," said the planter.

"Every political party's focus is on elections and tea garden workforce is huge vote bank. Many trade unions have no control over workers. There is no synergy among central and state governments and the Tea Board of India. The industry is bearing the brunt of the lack of synergy," he added.

Management of many tea estates said the industry was in no position to pay workers bonus at 20 per cent this year.