Tea gardens hint at bonus slash Nothing less than 2011, says union

TT; VIVEK CHHETRI; Darjeeling, Aug. 26: The Darjeeling tea industry today said it wouldn’t be able to pay workers the Puja bonus at last year’s rate of 20 per cent of the annual pay as production had come down and absenteeism was still high.

 The predominant union of tea garden workers in the hills, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, has said it would not accept any amount less than the rate fixed in 2011.

 The Darjeeling Tea Association is scheduled to hold a meeting with all unions in the hills on September 12 to discuss the annual bonus for 55,000 workers. Sandeep Mukherjee, the principal adviser to the DTA, today said:

 “Production has come down from 9.5 million kg of ready tea in 2010-11 to 8.9 million kg in 2011-12. This is largely because of the drought-like situation and lack of improvement in work culture. Absenteeism is still high among garden workers. So, we are not in a position to match last year’s figures.”

 The Darjeeling tea industry had last year agreed to pay bonus at 20 per cent — highest rate fixed under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, — irrespective of the grades of the estates. The hill gardens are categorised as Grade A, B, C and D, depending on production and other yardsticks. Bonus percentage is calculated on the total annual earnings of a worker. 

Twenty per cent is the highest bonus rate fixed under the act and the planters cannot pay less than 8.33 per cent. Mukherjee said, apart from the vagaries of weather and absenteeism, the industry had also been affected by the economic slowdown in Europe, a big market for Darjeeling tea, and inflation at home. Almost 60 per cent of Darjeeling tea is exported, without being auctioned.

 The prices it fetches in the international market are never revealed by tea companies. The DTA officials had earlier said while the production cost of Darjeeling tea hovered around Rs 350-370 per kg of organic tea, the commodity could be sold only around Rs 400 per kg. 

The figures could not be verified independently. Mukherjee said absenteeism among workers was as high as 30 per cent. “Even if the labourers turn up, they don’t complete the specified work in a day,” he added. Planters say one of the reasons for absenteeism in the gardens is the Centre’s 100 days’ rural job scheme for which workers get a higher wage.

 A worker is paid Rs 130 daily under the central scheme, compared to Rs 90 given in the gardens. Garden owners argue that if benefits such as bonus, rations, provident fund and medical and housing allowances are also taken into account, an estate worker’s total daily earning would be higher than the wage provided under the central scheme.

 Trade unions are unconvinced by the reasons cited by the DTA for a lesser rate for bonus. “This is a drama being staged by the management. 

We will not accept anything less than last year’s amount,” said Suraj Subba, general secretary of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union. In the Dooars, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union —its trade union — have raised the same demand as in the hills. 

 They have threatened to launch a movement if their demand for the bonus and paid leave for Karam Puja — a tribal festival — are not met by the government and planters. “Tea companies must pay bonus ahead of Durga Puja, at the rate of 20 per cent to all workers in all the gardens. We also want to reiterate our demand for a one-day paid leave for Karam Puja on September 26,” Rajesh Lakra, the Dooars Terai unit president of the Parishad, said.

“An undercurrent of grievances is running deep among people as the new state government has, so far, not taken any initiative to address our problems unlike the hills, excepting the wage revision done last year. If these demands are not met by the government and tea planters, there will be a spontaneous agitation by common workers.”