Describing the recent hike in wages of tea garden workers in Darjeeling and Dooars as inadequate, several trade unions have said that the problem of malnutrition and starvation would continue in the tea plantations of West Bengal.
A tripartite wage agreement signed on February 20, 2015, fixed a raise of Rs. 37.50 per day (in phases over three years) to tea plantation workers in Terai and Dooars and Rs. 42.50 to workers in Darjeeling. The daily wage before the agreement was Rs. 95. The agreement was between the State, planter’s associations and workers’ unions. “Workers will therefore be paid a miserly amount of Rs. 112.50 [per day] in the first year, Rs.122.50 in the second year and finally Rs. 132.50 in the third year. By no logic can such an increase be justified,” said a statement issued by Progressive Plantation Workers Union (PPWU), which had refused to sign the agreement.
Kiran Kalindi, president of the PPWU, said that the minimum wage declared by State government for the agricultural sector is Rs. 206 per day at present. “The agreement comes after almost a year-long tripartite wage negotiation process and is far from what the workers of tea plantations demanded,” said Debjit Dutta, a trade union activist working with several tea garden unions.
Another statement, jointly issued by many groups working with unorganised sector workers, pointed out that the revision won’t end the crisis.
