The Bangladesh Tea Workers Union held a press conference rejecting 5 percent wages of tea industry workers in the tea plantation industry sector in the gazette published by the lowest wage branch of the Bangladesh Ministry of Labor and Employment.

Nipen Pal, General Secretary (Acting) of Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union read a written statement at the press conference organized in the hall of the central office of Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union at Srimangal, Moulvibazar on Tuesday (September 10). Pankaj Kand, vice president of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union, was present at the time,Organizing Secretary Vijay Hazra, Treasurer Paresh Kalindi etc.

Nipen Pal said in a written statement, “Bangladesh has a total of 230 tea gardens including main gardens and outpost gardens. At present around 102.92 crore kg of tea is being produced. Despite the increase in tea production, the number of permanent and casual workers has not increased much, the wages and benefits of the workers have not increased.

After the British rule, the BTA (Bangladesh Tea Union) and the BCSU (Bangladesh Tea Workers Union), a two-party labor agreement, paid the workers in 2 to 3 installments in arrears of the increased wages until the time the demands were raised and the negotiations were completed.But in the gazette published by the Wage Board mentioned in the Schedule (d), the festival allowance has been recommended for 47 days under sub-section (a) of No. 5. But we know that according to section 111 (5) of the Labor Code, 60 days of basic wages will be given on equal 2 festivals.

The current basic wage of tea workers is Tk 170, so the tea workers will get 60 days’ wages as mentioned in the rules as festival allowance. Also, the number of working days is reduced.

Nipen Pal further said that the Schedule (e) of the Bangladesh Gazette published in its Terms and Conditions (7) ignored the interests of the tea workers and gave importance to the recommendations of the owner’s side to protect the interests of the owner. The bi-annual, bi-partisan labour agreement of the Bangladesh Tea Association and the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union talks about taking decisions through negotiation on the issues of workers’ opportunities, productivity, etc., but does not say anything about the determination of wages, i.e. the labour agreement on the determination of workers’ wages has been reduced. The tea workers feel that this is a bad sign for the tea industry. On the basis of the above opinion, we are of the view that the gazette published by this wage board is not acceptable.

“After the Minimum Wages Board published the gazette, we protested and rejected the gazette. Because this wage discrimination gazette published by the previous government was not friendly to tea workers. But our demand was not accepted. No action has been taken by the government. We appeal to the government to look into the matter. The gazette should be published after discussing with both the tea garden owners and tea workers.