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Small tea growers are divided on the implementation of the ‘interim hike’ in the wages for their workers. Though a section of them has agreed to take up the increased remuneration (from the earlier Rs 132.50 to Rs 150) if it is implemented in the organized sector too, another section wants it with certain conditions.
Two organizations have been advocating against the Minimum Wages Act altogether, and are against the same being implemented in small tea gardens. The secretary of the North Bengal Small Tea Planters’ Association (NBSTPA), Nitai Majumdar, and secretary of the Jalpaiguri District Small Tea Growers Association (JDSTGA), Bijay Gopal Chakraborty, said that the small growers and their gardens will be “finished” if the government implements the Minimum Wages in the small sector.
Notably, the state labour department has issued an order to hike the wages for an interim period in the organized sector with effect from 1 January. Despite resistance from a majority of the trade unions, a section of the workers belonging to some trade unions have started receiving the new wages from Friday last in the Terai and the Dooars regions.
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“At present, we pay Rs 132.50 a day. We will implement it (new wages) soon through bipartite talks with trade unions if the revised rate is implemented in the organized sector,” the secretary of the NBSTPA, Mr Majumdar, said.
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