INEQUALITY OF WAGE.

'Why Is the Chaiwala Turning His Back on Tea Garden Workers?'

Assam tea workers demand a minimum daily wage Rs 350 for all.

Tea garden workers pluck tea leaves inside Aideobarie Tea Estate in Jorhat in Assam. Credit: Reuters

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New Delhi: Leaders of tea-garden workers from Assam have called for immediate action on minimum wages in the state. Assam produces more than half of all tea grown in India, and more than a million workers are employed in over 800 tea plantations in the state. Those workers, however, earn less than their equivalents in other tea-growing Indian states. There is no fixed minimum wage, and the daily wage is fixed through agreements between workers’ unions and the industry.

This arrangement is illegal, according to Bibek Das, convener of Joint Action Committee For Tea Workers’ Wages (JACTWW). The Committee, which represents eight organisations in the state, made its case at a press conference in New Delhi. They demanded that the issue be discussed in the next session of the parliament, which starts on December 11.

 Wages being fixed ‘illegally’

“Minimum wages for tea workers has not been fixed in Assam yet,” Das told The Wire. Instead, he said, daily wages are illegally negotiated through bilateral talks between a planters’ association and the Congress-party-affiliated Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS). “Wages should be fixed according to the Minimum Wages Act for these workers who don’t have any bargaining power, are mostly illiterate and aren’t fully aware of their rights.”

Stephen Lakra, president of the All Adivasi Students’ Association, clarified that the daily wage was Rs 137 till July, and the Rs 30 increment is interim until a minimum wage is fixed. The revised wages are being paid to workers from April 2018.

Members of the Joint Action Committee For Tea Workers’ Wages (JACTWW) addressing a press conference in Delhi. Credit: Akhil Kumar/The Wire

‘False promises’ from the BJP

The leaders alleged that PM Modi, while campaigning in 2014, had promised a uniform minimum wage for tea workers if he came to power. The BJP is now in power both at the Center and in the state, and workers feel that the party has turned its back on them just like the Congress did earlier.

“The first thing Sarbananda Sonowal announced for us was to stop the supply of food grains that were provided to the workers at subsidised rates. Instead of raising minimum wages, they are giving Rs 1 crore to all tea garden owners for construction of inner roads. That money is going to the owners; our most urgent demand has been to fix a minimum wage. PM Modi became the PM claiming he is a ‘chaiwala’, why is he turning his back on the tea workers?” Das asks.

Lakra also raised concerns on housing, sanitation, education, health and working conditions of the tea workers. He also questioned why the revised wages were not paid from January 1 and hinted that the arrears due to the workers have been diverted for political gains.

Demands 

The JACTWW is demanding a fixed minimum wage of Rs 350 for all plantation workers. “We have come to Delhi to ensure our issues are taken up in the parliament. We have met various parties sympathetic to our cause, and they have assured us that they will raise the issue in the next session of the parliament. PM Modi talks of ‘one country, one tax’, but why not ‘one country, one wage’ for tea workers?” Das said. The Committee called for immediate action and demanded that the tea workers be treated with respect and dignity.  

“Joint Action Committee for Tea Workers’ Wages (JACTWW), Assam, came down heavily on the BJP governments at the Centre and in Assam for not keeping their word to implement the promised minimum daily wages of ₹351.33 to 11 lakh-strong tea plantation workers in the State. their counterparts in south Indian States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, tea estate workers in Assam get a meagre daily wage of ₹167. During its election campaigns — both in 2014 and 2016 — the BJP promised that if it came to power the wages would be upwardly revised to at least ₹350. All it did was to increase it by ₹30 to ₹167 per day,” said Bibek Das, central convenor of JACTWW, an umbrella organisation of eight tea workers’ unions and social organisations working with estate labourers, at a press conference on Thursday.

While tea workers in Kerala get more than ₹300 a day, those in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are paid over ₹250 per day and other benefits, Das said.

According to Stephen Lakra, president of the All Adivasi Students’ Association, Assam, also part of the joint action committee, the Government has been promising to implement a uniform wage bill for all tea workers in the country. Instead of adhering to its own promise, it has been resorting to the age-old practice of bilateral negotiation between tea-plantation owners and one particular trade union affiliated with a political party, Lakra said.

In July this year, following a strike in which lakhs of tea workers partook, the government revised the minimum daily wage to ₹167 whereas its labour commissioner recommended a wage of ₹351.33 a day, Lakra said.

That, too, the government implemented from first of April this year, rather than January as is the norm. “By delaying the implementation by three months, it deprived tea workers a total of ₹300 to 400 crore in arrears,” Das said on 15th of November.

Dibrugarh: Hundreds of plantation workers hit the streets here on Thursday seeking revision of daily wage for labourers engaged in over 800 tea gardens of the state. The workers, under the banner of 'Tea Workers Wage Revision Demand Forum', took out a procession from the old railway station to the office of the assistant labour commissioner's office, where they staged a demonstration for nearly two hours.

The protesters ended the demonstration by submitting a memorandum addressed to chief minister 

Sarbananda Sonowal

 which sought the hike of daily wages of tea garden workers to Rs 350 from the current threshold of Rs 137."We are seeking a dignified minimum wage for all tea garden workers which should not be less than Rs 350. There are around 30 lakh tea garden workers across the state who are being greatly exploited in matter of wages. Tea workers in Kerala get a minimum daily wage of Rs 310. It is Rs 263 in Karnataka and Rs 241 in Tamil And.

Here they get only Rs 137. We appeal to the government to ensure fair wages to workers as per the Plantation Labour Act, 1951 and Minimum Wages Act, 1948," the forum's secretary Ghanshyam Munda.

Munda also demanded a change of working hours for tea garden workers. "The British colonial system is still prevalent in the tea gardens as they are made to work for long hours in exchange of paltry wages. We want the working hours to be changed to 9 am to 4.30 pm in place of the currently prevalent 7 am to 4.30 pm to 9 am to 4.30 pm timings," Munda said.

Munda further demanded that the cost of housing, medical expenses, electricity, drinking water, pension, provident fund, gratuity and bonus should not be included as part of the daily wages as is the norm now.