Tea garden workers on Monday returned to work on the previous daily wage of Tk 120, withdrawing their strike following the Prime Minister’s assurance.
The workers went on strike demanding an increase in their wage to Tk 300 and ended their programme as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a virtual meeting gave assurance that their wage will be re-fixed.
This decision was taken at a meeting of the tea workers’ leaders with deputy commissioner (DC) of Moulvibazar Mir Nahid Ahsan at his office on Sunday night (August 21).
The DC presided over the meeting, while Superintendent of Police (SP) in Moulvibazar Mohammad Zakaria, Deputy Director of divisional Labour Office of Sreemangal Mohammad Nahidul Islam, Acting General Secretary of Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union Nipen Pail, Vice-President Pankaj Kanda, Organising Secretary Bijoy Hazra, and other officials and leaders of the administration and Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union were present.
Paresh Kalindi, a central leader of Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union, said, “In honour of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we joined work on the previous wage. The prime minister will talk to us through a video conference very soon to finalise the new wage.”
All financial benefits including wages of 10 days (during the strike period) will be paid by the owners, he added.
uring Sunday’s meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also talked to the tea garden workers through a video conference.
The tea garden workers’ leaders will apply to the DC for a meeting with the prime minister through video conferencing before the upcoming Durga Puja.
Other demands of tea garden workers will be submitted in written form to the deputy commissioner which will be sent to the prime minister’s office for consideration.
However, general workers got agitated and expressed anger over the decision of the union leaders.
President of the Tea Workers Rights Movement Ridesh Modi said, “Why did we enforce a strike for so long if we have to return to work on the previous wage?”
On Sunday, the garden workers rejected the wage hike by Tk 25 to Tk 145 by the government and staged demonstrations on Dhaka-Sylhet highway and Airport Road in Sylhet.
They abstained from joining work as the leaders of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union on Saturday night announced that they did not withdraw the strike upon assurance of a Tk 25 hike in wage.
On Saturday night, tea garden workers’ leaders claimed that they postponed their indefinite strike until they meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after her return from India.
On August 9, the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union started two-hour work abstention a day demanding daily wage hike.
Workers demanded an increase in their wage to Tk 300, with inflation rising and the currency depreciating. The workers of 167 tea gardens across the country went on a full-scale strike on August 13, after four days of two-hour work abstention.
Bangladesh is producing a record amount of tea every year through the toil of the tea garden workers. In 2021, a record 96 million kilogrammes of tea was produced in the country due to the hard labour of the ‘underpaid’ tea workers.
Although two agreements on increasing wages were signed, the fate of tea garden workers in the country hasn’t changed a bit.
