The labour department said on Friday that the Longview tea estate in the Kurseong subdivision would reopen on November 11.

The decision to reopen the garden, located around 25km from Siliguri, was made at a meeting convened by the labour department and attended by representatives of the management and trade unions here on Friday.

The garden has a tea plantation area of around 500 hectares and 350 workers. The estate has been closed since October 14 after the management announced the suspension of work, alleging lawlessness in the garden because of protests by the labourers.

“Longview will reopen on November 11 as the management agreed to resume activities in the garden. The management will pay the remaining six per cent bonus (earlier they had paid the bonus at a 10 per cent rate) to the workers and the employees on November 9,” said Shyamal Datta, the additional labour commissioner (north Bengal zone).

Workers had held demonstrations in the past few months, demanding the immediate disbursal of their dues, including wages, which amount to ₹16 crore. On October 7, a section of the labourers launched a relay hunger strike under the Hill Plantation Employees Union (HPEU).

Leaders of the HPEU and the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU), affiliated with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, were present at the meeting on Friday but didn’t sign the tripartite agreement. Leaders of unions affiliated with the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, GNLF and the Trinamul Congress signed the agreement.

“The management had made similar promises earlier but didn’t meet our
demands. So, we didn’t sign the agreement. We will continue our relay hunger
strike until the management starts clearing the dues,” said Samik Chakraborty, an executive committee member of the HPEU.