Tea workers seek fair pay from ‘chaiwala’ PM

  • | Monday | 10th December, 2018

Tea garden workers’ wages comprise both cash and kind components.However, even this interim wage increment, Gowala said, has not been received by workers for two months. Two and half years have passed since the BJP-led government came into power, but it is yet to fulfil its promise to ensure that tea workers get minimum wage,” general secretary of ACMS Rupesh Gowala told TOI.There are about 10 lakh tea garden workers in Assam, producer of half the country’s tea. In the run-up to the assembly election in 2016, BJP had promised to increase the daily wage to Rs 351 for tea garden workers in its manifesto and reiterated the commitment after forming the government. But the workers started getting the interim increment wage from March 1. “Till now, the government has not been able to secure this,” Gowala added.At present, tea garden workers get Rs 167 a day in the Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 145 daily in the Barak Valley.

GUWAHATI: One of Assam’s largest labour unions, the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing up his “chaiwala” days before the election but failing to ensure the daily minimum wage of Rs 351 for tea garden employees after winning.“During his election campaigns in Assam, the Prime Minister often referred to his days as a chaiwala to express solidarity with tea garden workers. Two and half years have passed since the BJP-led government came into power, but it is yet to fulfil its promise to ensure that tea workers get minimum wage,” general secretary of ACMS Rupesh Gowala told TOI.There are about 10 lakh tea garden workers in Assam, producer of half the country’s tea. In the run-up to the assembly election in 2016, BJP had promised to increase the daily wage to Rs 351 for tea garden workers in its manifesto and reiterated the commitment after forming the government. “Till now, the government has not been able to secure this,” Gowala added.At present, tea garden workers get Rs 167 a day in the Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 145 daily in the Barak Valley. The Indian National Trade Union Congress-affiliated ACMS is part of wage-fixing mechanism with the garden managements in the Brahmaputra Valley, which has 800-odd tea gardens.The existing wage structure was announced in July this year, after the state government announced a Rs-30 increment. Labour and tea tribes welfare minister Pallab Lochan Das had then said that the government would raise the daily wage to Rs 351, but in a “phased manner”. Tea garden workers’ wages comprise both cash and kind components.However, even this interim wage increment, Gowala said, has not been received by workers for two months. “The increment should have been from January 1. But the workers started getting the interim increment wage from March 1. When will the arrears for two months be paid?” Gowala added.

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