A group of tea estate workers under the aegis of a joint action council harvested tea leaves on a tea estate at Mepadi in the district on Thursday as part of an ongoing agitation demanding withdrawal of a lockout declared by the estate management.
The management of the Chembra tea estate declared a lockout arbitrarily at three divisions on October 27 alleging that workers were agitating frequently and the estate suffered losses on account of this. The workers had started an indefinite fast in front of the estate office at Erumakolly, near Meppadi, from October 28 demanding withdrawal of the lockout.
P. Gagarin, convener of the joint action council, said that as many as 320 labourers had been working on the 800-acre estate, and the management declared the lockout arbitrarily without informing the workers or discussions with trade unions. The move was against the plantation Acts, he said. The workers had launched an indefinite agitation on October 28 and the district labour officer and assistant labour commissioner, Kozhikode, convened separate meetings to discuss the issue but to no avail. It provoked the workers to intensify the agitation.
Notice to workers
Earlier the management had issued a notice to the workers regarding a voluntary retirement scheme, but the workers did not respond as the management had not mentioned the details of the scheme. Moreover, the workers were yet to get their wages and other incentives in October, he said.
Starting at 8 a.m., 4,368 kg of tea leaves was harvested. The action council sold it to a tea factory in Tamil Nadu and disbursed the money to the workers.
