The rates of the annual bonus for workers of 60 tea estates in the Dooars and the Terai were decided at a bipartite meeting held in Jalpaiguri on Thursday night.

The talks between tea planters and leaders of trade unions to decide on the bonus for two categories of gardens commenced in the morning and continued for over 11 hours.

All these gardens are members of the Indian Tea Planters’ Association (ITPA) and Terai Indian Planters’ Association (TIPA). Both these associations had withdrawn from the bonus meeting that was held in Calcutta on October 10 and 11.

At the meeting, it was decided that 36 gardens would pay bonus at 19 per cent rate, the same rate that has been fixed for most other gardens during the talks in Calcutta.

“However, there are 24 other gardens which are financially weak. It has been decided that they pay the bonus at different rates, ranging from nine percent to 18.5 percent,” said Amitangshu Chakraborty, the principal advisor of ITPA.

Altogether, around 50,000 workers in these gardens will receive the bonus ahead of the festivities. “The gardens have been asked to pay bonus by October 18,” Chakraborty added.

Om Lohar, secretary of the central Committee of Trinamul Cha Bagan Sramik Union, said it is good that a section of gardens will pay at 19 percent rate.

“Earlier, they had denied paying a bonus at this rate. However, we continued the talks for hours and eventually, most of the gardens agreed,” said Lohar.

Talks fail in hills

The trade unions of the Darjeeling tea industry staged a walkout on Friday after the management proposed a bonus of nine percent.

“We felt humiliated when the management offered a bonus at nine percent rate. Gardens in the plains have agreed to pay a bonus at the rate of 19 percent,” said Saman Pathak, a former Rajya Sabha MP and a leader of Joint Forum, an apex body of trade unions.

The forum, he said, has decided to hold a meeting to discuss their future steps. There are 87 tea estates in Darjeeling hills.