Assam Unions to launch Padayatra for a Just Wage in Tea Plantations
The Bagisa Shramik Santha (BSS) and Asom Majuri Shramik Union (AMSU), will launch a Padayatra in two tea producing districts of Sibsagar and Golaghat in Assam demanding a daily wage of Rs 240 in the tea gardens of Assam calculated on the basis of the 15th ILC norms and subsequent Supreme Court orders. The unions represent over one lakh members across the state while Golaghat and Sibsagar together account for about 25 percent of the total tea production in the state.
Devabrata Sarmah of the BSS, while calling for the Padayatra, said that the government should immediately set up a minimum wage board for the tea industry. Wages in the tea plantation sector have always been set through tripartite agreements which have been infrequent and skewed in favour of the plantation owners. With the sustained crisis in the plantations and the recent Supreme Court directive for invoking the Tea Act, it has become critical to set up such a wage board in this industry. Sarmah also stressed on the need to evolve a mechanism in which negotiations on any issue affecting workers should be done with all registered unions representing workers in the industry and not only recognised unions.
The Padayatra will begin from the Tata Tea garden in Sapekhati in Sibsagar District on 20 May and will move through all the tea gardens in the district over the next five days. Simultaneously a padayatra will commence in Golaghat. The AMSU representing rural daily wage workers will participate in these padayatras to build a campaign together with plantation workers for a just wage.