Tea workers to stay off work sine die

Tea garden workers have called for work abstention for an indefinite period after the meeting with the authority ended without any decision on pay increase. 

The labourers, who get paid Tk 120 a day, said the abstention will go on until their daily wage increases to Tk 300. 

The meeting between the workers and Labour Division took place on Tuesday morning. 

Labour Division Director General Khaled Mamun Chowdhury and Bangladesh Tea Workers Union President Makhan Lal Karmaker, Vice-president Pankaj Kandam, General Secretary Nipen Pal along with the branch heads of seven tea valleys attended the meeting. 

Earlier, tea workers had been observing a two-hour work abstention for a week demanding better pay. But, as tea garden owners did not accept their demand, the tea workers started the strike on Saturday. 

Tapan Dutta, chief adviser to the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union, said that the wages of tea workers are revised every two years.

Workers' daily wage was fixed at Tk 120 for two years from January 2019, he said, adding that workers then demanded that the daily pay be raised to Tk 300 for the following two years while owners agreed to increase it to Tk 134.

On 12 August, the Labour Division issued a notice urging tea workers to end the 2-hour work abstention to keep tea production normal.

TIB for logical hike 

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has urged the authorities concerned to raise the wage of the tea workers logically through discussion instead of threating them to stop the ongoing peaceful movement across the country.

Tea workers’ daily wage of only Tk 120 after working for eight hours and sometimes even more, with limited facilities is discriminatory and unconstitutional, the graft watchdog body said in a statement on Tuesday.

Following the strike of the tea workers amid the rise in commodity prices, the proposal to increase their wages by only Tk 14 is a violation of their rights, it added.

TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the ministries concerned should take steps to determine the logical wages acceptable to the tea workers through equality-based discussions considering the rights of the tea workers as citizens of the country.

While the workers have been trying to draw the attention of the tea garden authorities through strike for the past several days, the Director General of Labor Department recently termed the strike as ‘violation of labor law’ in a letter, said Zaman.

“It is nothing but an expression of solidarity with the colonial mentality of the tea industry owners,” he said.

He also said ‘The Minimum Wage Board’ of the country has set the minimum wage several times higher than other sectors.

“But the Ministry of Labour and Employment recommended to maintain the minimum wage set by the tea garden owners ignoring the ‘guideline’ of the ministry being influenced by some invisible force. And it needs to be looked into,” he added.

TIB for logical hike