Labour minister Moloy Ghatak, along with Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee and other Trinamul leaders, staged a dharna in front of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) office in Siliguri today.

The protest culminated in the submission of a 10-point memorandum to the regional provident fund commissioner, demanding immediate action to safeguard the interests of tea garden workers.

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The demonstration was jointly organised by the Trinamul Cha Bagan Shramik Union and the INTTUC (Darjeeling District – Plains), highlighting widespread irregularities in provident fund (PF) management across several tea estates. The leaders alleged persistent violations of the employees’ provident fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, by a large number of garden managements.

According to worker testimonies cited in the memorandum, several tea estates — including Tirrihana (Jabra division), Nishchintapur, Singijhora, New Chumta, Bhojnarain, Gangaram, Naxalbari, Thanjhora, Sukna, Kamala, Gayaganga, Bijlimoni, and Atal — have been regularly deducting PF contributions from workers’ wages without depositing them, leading to discrepancies in both employer and employee contributions.

The unions also flagged that many small tea growers, particularly those operating on plots exceeding 20 acres, have either not registered under the PF scheme or are not making any contributions. Furthermore, they noted that nearly 70 per cent of the bought-leaf factories under the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency — including 30 in Phansidewa-Kharibari block and 40 in Chopra block — are similarly defaulting on PF payments.

A major issue highlighted was the difficulty workers face in withdrawing their PF due to mismatched Aadhaar details. The unions demanded that rectification camps be organized within each garden, citing the financial hardship caused when workers must travel to Siliguri and forgo daily wages.

Additional concerns raised in the memorandum include, PF deposit notifications not reaching workers due to registration errors in mobile numbers; non-deduction of PF from wages of casual or “bigha” workers; demand to raise the retirement age from 58 to 60 years; widespread PF non-compliance in factories, warehouses, and godowns in Matigara and surrounding areas; exploitation of illiterate workers by middlemen allegedly operating within the EPFO premises, demanding bribes in exchange for assistance.

The unions urged the EPFO to identify and take strict action against the defaulting managements and fraudulent brokers. They also called for immediate inclusion of all unorganised sector workers under PF coverage.

“This is a serious breach of workers’ rights and a failure of enforcement,” said INTTUC Darjeeling district (plains) president Nirjal Dey. “We expect prompt and exemplary action from the authorities.”