The passage of three labour legislations in Parliament have drawn loud cheers from the Bengal unit of the BJP as the party believes the new laws would push up wages of tea garden workers and help the party make inroads into the brew belt of north Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections.
Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling, said in Parliament that the management of tea estates would have to pay 85 per cent of the wage component in cash now onwards. Tea garden workers in Bengal get Rs 176 per day as cash component, which Bista said was around 50 per cent of the wage.
Over the last few years, the demand for wage revision has been resonating across north Bengal and has become a political issue.
“At a time the Trinamul government has not been able to decide on the minimum wages for tea workers in the state despite forming a committee a few years ago to look into the matter, the BJP will surely tom-tom its success as the passage of the bills is likely to push up the cash component of wages,” said a political observer.
Fifteen of the 54 Assembly segments in north Bengal are in the tea growing regions and if the BJP plays its cards well, the party will reap benefits.
The labour ministry has drafted Codes on Industrial Relations, the Social Security Code and the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition.
“These provisions (in the legislations) will have immense impact on the tea garden and cinchona garden workers in our region,” said Bista.
Highlighting a key component of the legislations, Bista said in Parliament: “The tea garden workers will be entitled to receive 85 per cent of their wages in cash, and the plantation owners can only deduct 15 per cent as in-kind payment.”
Bista claimed that “currently around 50 per cent of tea garden wages are deducted as in-kind payment” and labourers would be entitled to a much higher wages “than the current rate of Rs 176”.
At the moment, the tea gardens are governed by the Plantation Labour Act 1951, which is set to be repealed once these legislations are given the assent by the President of India.
The Darjeeling MP also said the new laws would have provisions to enable plantations to join ESI hospitals providing better insurance and health facilities to the workers.
Tea planters did not want to immediately respond without leafing through the new legislations but certain sections in the industry have started weaving a new narrative.
“We firmly believe that components like bonus, provident fund, gratuity, extra leave price (paid to those who pluck more than the given task in a day) should also be included in the cash component of the wage and not just Rs 176,” said a planter.
The non-cash component of the workers currently includes housing, medicine, wood and umbrellas even though there are allegations that most tea estates do not provide these benefits.
Another planter pointed out that the industry was facing many problems like a dip in production from 14 million kgs to 8 million kgs per annum, a nosedive in exports and absence of minimum support price.
“Tea is under the commerce ministry and no schemes are applicable to it under the ministry of agriculture. So, imposing of minimum wages mean pushing management to go into an unviable situation,” he said.
