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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Centre urged to regulate tea wages

Centre urged to regulate tea wages

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published Published on Mar 19, 2015   modified Modified on Mar 19, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: The cup that cheers proved to be hotter than expected for the government today as it came under pressure to amend a central act to regularise wages of tea labourers.

Congress MP from Assam Pankaj Bora demanded a timeframe within which the government would amend the Plantations Labour Act to ensure protection for tea garden workers.

The question came up in the Rajya Sabha when labour and employment minister Bandaru Dattatreya, replying to Bora's question on whether the government was examining the proposal to increase the wages of tea garden workers from Rs 94 to Rs 330, said the wages were decided by state governments.

This prompted Bora to raise the issue of amendment to the central act as he urged the Centre to intervene to protect tea garden workers. Conceding that tea garden labourers were exploited and Bora's concerns over the need to raise wages were valid, Dattatreya said the government was examining a proposal received from the ministry of commerce and industry to amend the act.

"The proposed amendments are being examined," he said.

The commerce ministry's amendments aim to ensure, among other things, the welfare of workers.

Dattatreya said the views of various ministries and states, including the ministries of panchayati raj and rural development and the states of West Bengal and Assam, had been received.

The minimum wages of tea garden labourers varies in the tea-growing states. Even within Assam, a major producer of tea, wages are different in the gardens of Brahmaputra and Barak valleys.

The wage agreement between Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha and the Consultative Committee of Plantations Associations, Assam Valley Branch, for daily wage labourers of the tea industry dated March 1, 2012 expired on December 31 last year. The ACMS had placed its demand for revision of wages and after discussions the new wage structure for 2015 was fixed at Rs 115, to be increased to Rs 126 next year and Rs 137 in 2017.

Bora found support in Trinamul MP D. Bhattacharya who said variable dearness allowance should be a component of the workers' wages. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury also supported Bora's concerns. "It is a long-standing demand for a central act to accord them (workers) protection," said Yechury. He said cases of suicide by tea garden workers had been reported from West Bengal.


The Telegraph, 19 March, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150319/jsp/frontpage/story_9519.jsp#.VQqSYuFr9U8


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