With 1692 registered tea producers and nine auction centers, the tea industry sees an annual turnover of over Rs. 9000 crores. North Bengal has about 450 gardens spread out in the Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars region that are registered as sellers in the Siliguri tea Auction Centre with about 3.5 lakh permanent workers. It is estimated that more than 25, 00,000 people are dependent on the tea industry in the region. The last 10 years has seen many changes within the tea industry of the region.

Closed and Abandoned gardens

In the last decade or so the region saw large number of tea gardens closing down. More than 50 gardens had closed during this period affecting a huge section of the work force. 4 gardens continue to be abandoned. Interestingly, despite the crisis, till 2007 the tea industry in West Bengal saw only 8 workers’ strikes as against 202 lockouts! Of about 14 tea gardens abandoned by their owners, few were run by the Operative Management Committees (OMC) - a committee initiated and formed with the workers of the garden to keep the plucking of tea leaves going so as to provide subsistence to the workers of the garden. Most of these have now reopened with the Special Tea Fund released in 2007 by the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India but are functioning under the constant shadow of closure.

During this same period the region also saw a large number of starvation deaths. Nearly 1500 workers from the closed gardens died of starvation during this same period. Studies show that 70% of the people of closed tea gardens are in the Chronic Energy Deficiency III stage. The Central government announced the Financial Assistance to the Workers in Locked-out Industrial units scheme (FAWLOI) for providing financial assistance to every worker of closed gardens, but it did not extend the same benefit to the bigha or casual workers whose ratio to the permanent workers is now almost at 1:3 and is ever increasing with the managements moving towards more induction of casual workers especially in the cases of plucking for the inferior CTC tea.

The Supreme Court in its order in August 2010 had directed the Central Government to invoke the Tea Act 1953 to take over the gardens that are closed within six months. The Central Government has not only failed to stop closures in the industry, it has also failed to implement the Supreme Court order.

Labour Rights Violations

The tea gardens have been violating the basic provisions of the Tea Plantation Labour Act with impunity. Provisions of crèche, medical facilities, ambulance, and house repair have all become things of the past. Moreover, many tea gardens of the region have also not deposited the provident fund dues of the workers amounting to over Rs. 77 crores while the state government has provided full support to the garden owners by being silent observers.

Further, a system of productivity linked wages was forced by the management and the Government of West Bengal in 2005 during a very low ebb in the workers movement which led to the introduction of a pro-rata system of wages that entails plantation workers to deliver a pre-agreed productivity level to earn their basic daily wage. In case they fail to achieve this target, there is a cut in the daily wage. However, extra productivity is also awarded with incentives. This productivity-linked pro rata system of wage setting that is contingent on the collective bargaining power of negotiating trade unions is always fraught with the high possibility of huge losses in wage depending on the bargaining strength of the trade unions. Given that the wages in the tea industry are abysmally low, even lower than the statutory agricultural minimum wage in the state, this system has actually perpetuated a system that can amount to payment of a wage lower than the minimum wage which according to the Supreme Court amounts to ‘forced labour’. This system has also re-introduced child labour into the tea gardens. To meet the production targets, women workers are forced to bring their children to supplement their work.

Towards a Just Wage

Wages in the tea plantation sector have always been set through tripartite agreements which have been infrequent and skewed in favour of the plantation owners. With the sustained crisis in the plantations and the recent Supreme Court directive for invoking the Tea Act and the upcoming elections, the state government has felt the pressure to propose a minimum wage for the tea plantations last year below which no wage can fall.

The government proposal of minimum wage for the plantation workers falls short of providing the basic needs of a worker as proposed by the 15th ILC norms and subsequent Supreme Court orders supplementing it. It is therefore time to build an alliance with all progressive trade unions to campaign for a minimum wage linked to dearness allowance with 100% neutralization that will not just provide the subsistence needs of workers but also ensure that there can be no productivity linked wage cuts.

In taking this demand forward, Darjeeling Terai Dooars Chia Kaman Union, Pashchim Banga Cha Sramik Karmachari Union, Terai Sangrami Cha Sramik Union and the All West Bengal Tea Garden Labour Union have come together to launch a joint campaign on minimum wage of Rs. 245 per day for the tea plantation workers as per 15th ILC norms and subsequent Supreme Court orders. The joint trade union initiative will also campaign for the implementation of the Plantation Labour Act and in case of sick and closed plantations demand the implementation of the Supreme Court directive of 2010.