Unions urged to bring normalcy in tea gardens

KOLKATA: Amid continuing agitation at the tea gardens in North Bengal and an ongoing three-day strike over minimum wage, planters on Thursday appealed to the unions to call off the protest programmes and allow normalcy to be restored.

A tripartite meeting was held on Monday in Siliguri where the State Labour Department officials outlined the progress on the issue of minimum wage.

According to planters, the tea industry in north Bengal’s Dooars and Terai regions have suffered losses to the tune of around Rs 500 crore in 2017 due to the 105-day strike.

Tea producers also said that the industry is “under severe financial stress” as tea prices over the last many years have remained stagnant. “Unless price realisations and productivity improve, the industry cannot sustainably implement any further enhancement of wage. Disruptions by way of strikes aggravate the situation and make it difficult for the industry to recover on the production front and in sustaining the expected quality of Tea made and obligations of payments in future,” the statement said. (IANS)