The Bengal government has decided to hold a meeting of the minimum wages advisory committee in Siliguri on Tuesday days after Calcutta High Court’s deadline for the state to fix the minimum wage of tea plantation workers expired.
Sources said Jawaid Akhtar, a member secretary of the advisory committee as well as the labour commissioner of Bengal, has issued a notice, saying the 19th meeting of the panel will be held at the state guest house in Siliguri on February 20.
At the moment, over three lakh workers in the tea gardens of north Bengal receive a daily wage of Rs 250 each.
On August 1, the single bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury issued a directive to the state government to finalise the minimum wage within six months.
“The court’s deadline expired a few weeks ago. The meeting which is being called just when elections are around the corner raises eyebrows,” said Saman Pathak, a former CPM MP and a member of the Joint Forum, a conglomeration of more than 20 trade unions of tea estate labourers.
Trade unions of the Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) are not constituents of the forum.
Pathak said he feared the government would “get over the election by just announcing some processes for the implementation of the minimum wages”. “This is because we feel the government has not been sincere in the implementation of the minimum wage. It is the same about the management, too,” said Pathak.
The advisory committee had been formed in 2015.
The 24-member committee consists of representatives of the state government and various tea planters’ associations, and five trade union leaders.
“Following the directive from the high court, we feel something positive might come out of the February 20 meeting. However, this is also election time,” said Suraj Subba, a leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s trade union.
Tea garden workers and their families determine the election verdict of at least three Lok Sabha seats which are currently held by the BJP.
The Trinamul government has launched a number of welfare projects for the tea garden dwellers to get back their support.
