Mintu Deshwara

After a 15-day work abstention, tea workers resumed work for a daily wage of Tk 170 yesterday morning.

Majority of them expressed their dissatisfaction over the Tk 50 pay hike and said they resumed work as they had no alternative.

“My family and I ate rice once a day for the last 15 days. I even could not purchase medicine for my father. I have no option but to resume work,” said Sukhia Ghatual, a worker in Moulvibazar’s Sreemangal.

“We have resumedwork as per the directives of the prime minister. But Tk 50 hike will not make any change in our lives,” said Sadhana Bauri, another tea worker in the area.

Jyotirmoy Kanu, former president of the UniversityTea Students’ Union, said, “The wage has been fixed after a discussion with the tea estate owners, not the workers.

“We request the prime minister to revise the wage after talking to the workers.”

Meanwhile, the tea estates went back to normalcy yesterday as thousands of workers were seen working as usual.

By yesterday morning, workers started collecting tea leaves in Khaichhara, Bhurbhuria, and Zerin tea gardens in Moulvibazar’s Sreemangal.

“Most of the tea estates remain closed on Sunday. So, all the workers are expected to join work by tomorrow [today],” said Nipen Paul, acting general secretary of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union.

Around 125,000 workers in the country’s 241 tea estates have been protesting since August 9 demanding their daily wage be raised to Tk 300 from Tk 120.

They abstained from work from August 9-12 for two hours a day before going on a full-scale strike from August 13.

On August 21, some workers’ leaders agreed to end the strike, accepting an offer to raise the pay to Tk 145. But most of the workers refused and continued abstaining from work.

In the last two weeks, workers held demonstrations, formed human chains, blocked roads, and rail tracks to press home their demands.

Finally, on Saturday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a meeting with a delegation of tea estate owners at the Gono Bhaban directed them to raise the daily wage of tea workers to Tk 170 from Tk 120.

She also asked the workers to withdraw their work abstention and resume work Sunday.

Article originally published on The Daily Star

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The daily wage of tea workers has been fixed at Tk 170. Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus briefed the media after a meeting of tea garden owners with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The meeting began at 4:00pm at Gono Bhaban.

After the meeting, Ahmad Kaikaus said, “The prime minister has given this decision. She said that everyone should join work from tomorrow.”

The tea workers started a strike on August 9, 2022 demanding a daily wage of Tk 300. Later, on August 13, they started an indefinite strike across the country.

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Workers in the tea industry, who had been on a nationwide, indefinite work stoppage in favor of a pay raise, have decided to resume their jobs at the Tk 120 daily rate that they are currently earning.

Following a meeting between district officials and representatives of the Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union in the conference room of the Moulvibazar DC, the strike’s withdrawal was decided.

After the discussion, the administration and the union leaders — in a joint statement — said the tea workers will be joining work today (August 22, 2022) at their current wage.

Moulvibazar Deputy Commissioner Mir Nahid Ahsan presided over the meeting.

Superintendent of Police Mohammad Zakaria; Deputy Director of divisional Labour Office of Sreemangal, Mohammad Nahidul Islam; Acting General Secretary of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union Nipen Pal; Vice-President Pankaj Kanda; Organising Secretary Bijoy Hazra; and other officials and leaders of the administration and Bangladesh Tea Workers Union were present at the meeting that started at 9pm yesterday (August 21, 2022) and continued for six hours.

“Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union called off their strike today in honour of the Prime Minister, keeping faith and confidence in her,” the joint statement said.

For the time being, the workers will join the work at the current rate of Tk 120 per day, the statement said.

After a video conference with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the issue of wages will be finalised later, the statement added.

Tea workers’ leaders have appealed to the prime minister to join the video conference ahead of the upcoming Durga Puja.

According to the joint statement, the other demands of the tea workers will be submitted to the deputy commissioner, who will forward them to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The garden owners will pay the wages for the days when the tea workers observed the strike as per the traditional practice of the gardens.

Moulvibazar DC Nahid Ahsan, Superintendent Zakaria and Deputy Director of Labour Office Nahidul Islam signed the statement on behalf of the administration.

On behalf of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union, acting General Secretary Nipen Pal, VP Pankaj Kanda, Organizing Secretary Bijoy Hazra, finance secretary Paresh Kalindi and some others signed the statement.

Earlier, the workers were offered Tk 145 per day but it was largely refused by them and they vowed to continue their protest until the prime minister offered them a proper solution to the wage issue.

The workers of 167 tea estates across the country on August 9, 2022, enforced a two-hour work abstention from 9:00am to 11:00am daily demanding a pay hike. After four days, they went on an indefinite work abstention.

– Input from The Daily Star was used in this article.

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Sifat Uddin, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Kamalganj, said Santosh Ravi Das of Kamalganj in Moulvibazar district who gave an emotional post about his tea-worker mother, would obtain a part-time job at a public high school.

“Santosh has been assigned a part-time teaching position at Kamalganj Government Model High School. On Sunday, he will receive the appointment letter from the Moulvibazar deputy commissioner “the UNO declared.

Santosh said that the Kamalganj UNO contacted him on Saturday, and requested to submit an application to the school’s president and principal.

“I really want to work. I wrote the post to draw attention to the predicament of all tea workers, including my mother, because if their pay is not increased, they will be forced to go hungry at a time when commodity prices are surging uncontrollably ” Santosh remarked.

However, he pleaded with everyone not to divert the logical movement of tea workers by hiring him.

Santosh Ravi Das was born into a family of tea laborers in Fari Kanihati tea garden in Shamsernagar, Moulvibazar.

In a recent widely shared Facebook post, he mentioned that he lost his father six months after his birth.

His mother used to support the family at the time by working in a tea garden for Tk18 per day. When Santosh was in fifth grade in 2007, his mother’s salary was Tk88.

For his studies at the Camellia Duncan Foundation School, he was awarded a full scholarship.

His mother used to earn Tk102 per day before he was enrolled to BAF Shaheen College in 2013.

In order to pay for the tuition, uniforms, and books, she had to obtain a loan from Grameen Bank.

His mother had to obtain another loan from Grameen Bank when he passed his Higher Secondary Certificate exam in order to pay for his enrollment at Dhaka University.

Locals at the time provided financial assistance as well.

Santosh earned both his graduate and post-graduate degrees from from Dhaka University’s Department of Marketing.

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Yesterday, a government-convened meeting to consider raising the pay of workers in tea gardens came to an end without making a decision.
At the Sreemangal office in Moulvibazar, the Department of Labor held a day-long meeting with tea gardens employee yesterday.
The department will have another meeting with both workers and tea garden owners today at the department’s head office in Dhaka because the officials and workers were unable to reach an agreement regarding the salary increase.
“In today’s (yesterday) meeting, I heard problems and demand of workers. Then I requested the workers to resume work. At the same time, we assured them that we will continue discussions with owners about the wage hike. But the workers did not agree,” said Khaled Mamun Chowdhury, director general of the Department of Labour.
“We will hold another tripartite meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4:00pm in Dhaka,” he told this correspondent last evening.
The workers, however, are adamant that they won’t resume working until their demand is fulfilled.
“We will resume work only after our demands are fulfilled,” said Nipen Paul, acting general secretary of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union.
Workers at 166 tea farms countrywide, including those in Chattogram and Sylhet, have been refusingto work demanding a wage increase on the daily basis from the current Tk 120 to Tk 300, Since August 13.

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Bangladesh Cha Shramik Union, an organisation of tea garden workers, went on a countrywide strike from Saturday for an indefinite period demanding a hike in their daily wages.

Leaders and activists of the organisation’s Sylhet and Chattogram divisional units expressed their solidarity on Friday night with the organisation’s Moulvibazar unit that the daily wage of a tea garden worker should be raised to Tk 300 from Tk 120 following the recent unusual hike in the prices of essential commodities.

They staged demonstrations at different tea gardens across the country from early Saturday, abstaining from their regular works to press home their demand, according to the union activists.

On Thursday afternoon, Bangladesh Cha Shramik Union leaders declared an indefinite strike in the tea gardens of Moulvibazar after a meeting with the divisional labour department officials.

The meeting aimed at settling the tea garden workers’ demand for daily wage hike.

The union activists gathered at Lakkatura Cha Bagan, a state-owned tea garden along the Sylhet airport road at about 6:00am and started demonstrations.

They blocked the airport Road for more than half an hour from 11:00am and then marched towards the city’s Chowhatta intersection where they staged a sit-in to drum up support for their demand.

The organisation activists also staged similar programmes at all tea gardens across Moulvibazar.

Bangladesh Cha Shramik Union organising secretary Bijoy Hajra told New Age that they had been observing a two-hour work abstention from Tuesday while the divisional labour department invited them to a meeting on Thursday afternoon to settle the issue.

‘The meeting ended without any decision as we could not agree with the proposal given by the labour department officials to adjourn our movement until August 28,’ Bijoy said, adding that no garden owners attended the meeting.

He said that the situation forced them to go on an indefinite strike from Friday.

Raju Goala, president of Sylhet Valley, BCSU, told New Age that they would continue their strike and stage sit-in until their demand was met.

GM Shiblee, Sylhet divisional branch chairman of Bangladesh Tea Association, said that the incident of work abstention by the tea garden workers was illegal when efforts were underway to settle the issue.

‘The demand for wage hike is logical when the prices of all commodities have gone up in recent days. But the tea garden workers cannot go on strike during the ongoing pick season,’ Shiblee added.

He argued that the labour ministry officials were talking to tea garden workers to bring them back to work.

Ganasamhati Andolon in a statement on Saturday demanded that a tea garden worker’s daily wage be increased to Tk 300 from Tk 120.

The joint statement signed by Ganasamhati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki and its executive coordinator Abul Hassan Rubel said that it was inhuman to pay a tea garden worker Tk 120 a day amid the increasing pieces of essentials.

Article originally published on New Age

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