The Mamata Banerjee government has taken up the task to expedite the process of fixing minimum wages for tea workers of Bengal and finalise it by January 2022.

On Tuesday, a meeting of the minimum wage advisory committee, formed in 2015, was held in Calcutta in the presence of state labour minister Becharam Manna.

“At the meeting, it was decided to form a smaller, six-member committee, comprising two representatives each from trade unions and tea planters, along with two senior officials of the department. The committee will prepare a draft proposal on minimum wage rate in consultation with industry stakeholders,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, secretary general of the Tea Association of India.

Though six years have gone by since the advisory committee was formed, the minimum wage is yet to be fixed. Tea workers and non-managerial employees (staff and sub-staff) have, however, received interim hikes.

“But this time, the state appears to be serious. During the meeting, the state labour minister had said the state wants the wage rate to be finalised within the next quarter so that it can be put into effect in January 2022. The smaller committee will ready the draft proposal so that a meeting can be held in the first week of next month,” said a source.

This comes at a time the BJP government of Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam, which produces the most tea in the country, decided to form seven sub-committees for recommendations to develop the tribal population in its tea belt. The committees have been asked to submit recommendations by December so that the state can come up with a package in the next fiscal budget.

“Now that the BJP government there is taking this initiative, it seems the Trinamul government here wants to fix the minimum wage earlier,” said an observer.