Union snips protest time in garden

TT; Alipurduar, Aug. 26: A trade union in a Dooars tea garden has asked workers to reduce the duration of their morning “gate meetings”, a euphemism for protests, from over two hours to half an hour as the agitation was hampering plucking. It is unusual for a trade union to tell workers that protests hamper production — a line generally favoured by the estate management.

 “Gate meetings” are a form of protest that garden workers organise to raise slogans. The “gate meetings” at Ramjhora Tea Estate started on Tuesday over a demand for a wage hike. The meetings went on for over two hours every morning till Saturday. The labourers were demanding revision of wages as they are being paid according to the old rates of Rs 67 a day. They are entitled to get Rs 90 a day. 

 Mani Darnal, a leader of the INTUC-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) today said: “Yesterday we went to Ramjhora Tea Estate and spoke to the workers. It is true that according to a tripartite agreement signed in 2011, workers are supposed to get Rs 90 per day and the labourers here are not getting that. But the management has invested a lot of money to improve the estate after they took over (in 2010).” The garden in Jalpaiguri, 75km from here, was shut on August 11, 2002, and reopened on October 9, 2010. Darnal added:

 “We told the workers that the garden should not go back to the earlier state (when it was shut down). We will meet the DM of Jalpaiguri and take up the issue with him.” The union leader added that from tomorrow the “gate meetings” would be held for half an hour everyday. Jalpaiguri district magistrate Smaraki Mahapatra said: “I have received information that the workers are getting Rs 67 a day.

 I have asked the deputy labour commissioner of Jalpaiguri to submit a report to me on the matter.” According to the tripartite agreement signed by the labour commission, garden management and trade unions on November 4, 2011, the minimum daily wage of a garden worker in Dooars was fixed at Rs 85 from the earlier rate of Rs 67. In April this year it was revised to Rs 90 a day.

 Not all NUPW leaders are happy with the decision. Ramesh Sharma, an NUPW leader in the garden, said: “We thought the management would pay the increased amount gradually as they have invested a lot of money in the estate after they took over. But they did not.

 We started the gate meetings from Tuesday to demand the increased wages. But the management has not yet taken any initiative to discuss the matter with us.” Garden manager Hemant Popli said he would like the “gate meetings” to stop and would issue a notice to this effect.

 He added that “in the agreement we had signed while taking over the estate, nothing was mentioned on the revised wages. I have told the workers that their wages would be increased from next year. But I don’t know the exact amount. 

I appreciate the trade union leaders’ move to convince the workers.” Sharma said the workers would stop the half-an-hour “gate meetings” too if the management sat for discussions with them on wages. He said when the garden was reopened in 2010, 846 of the total 1,103 workers were given jobs and the management had said the rest would be absorbed in the next five years.

 “Kalchini Tea Estate also reopened in 2010 after eight years but there was no retrenchment and the workers are getting Rs 90 as their daily wage. Then why is the management not paying the increased wages here? From tomorrow, the gate meeting will be for half an hour instead of two hours everyday because we do not want to go back to what we had witnessed during the closure period,” Sharma said. In the eight years that the estate was shut, at least 150 people died reportedly of malnutrition.