The Hindu Business Line : Higher wages for Bengal tea garden workers

Nearly three lakh workers employed in 280 tea gardens in West Bengal will get higher wages retrospectively from April 2008 following a tripartite agreement signed here on Saturday.

As per the agreement, the daily wage of each worker will rise by Rs 4.10 with effect from April 2008 and by Rs 4.50 from April 2009. The agreement will remain in force till March 2011. As a result, the additional burden on the tea garden owners will range between Rs 38 crore to Rs 42 crore annually. The workers will start getting wages at revised rates from September and the arrear payment for the period from April to August 2008 will be made by December 25, 2008.

Other issues

The other issues that were settled included the payment of leave travel allowance to Other Monthly Rated Employees, one job to the family of each retired employee in staff category depending on qualification, sickness allowance to temporary workers, providing umbrella to each worker every alternate year and restrooms for workers for every 50 acres of the area under cultivation.

It was decided that various other issues such as re-introduction of variable dearness allowance as demanded by the unions and weightage according to seniority of workers would be discussed later. The issue of pay hike for staff and sub-staff would be discussed on or after October 20, according to tea industry sources.

More Stories on : Tea | Human Resources | West Bengal

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