Kamalganj (Moulvibazar) Correspondent //

Tea workers in 8 gardens including the National Tea Company Limited (NTCL) outpost in Kamalganj, Moulvibazar have joined work after receiving their outstanding two weeks’ wages.

After the decision of the tripartite meeting, two weeks’ wages were paid last Monday. The remaining 4 weeks’ wages will be paid to the tea workers in January. The workers joined work in the gardens from Tuesday (December 10) morning after receiving two weeks’ wages out of 6 weeks last Monday.

While talking to female tea workers Basanti Rajgarh, Lalita Bhar, Malti, Shyambati during tea leaf picking, they said, “Sir, we lost the strength to work half-starved and hungry after not receiving our outstanding wages. So we were forced to stop working. On Monday, we received two weeks’ wages and joined work today.”

Rashedul Islam, assistant manager of Madhabpur Tea Garden, who was inspecting the work, said, “The tea workers have joined work after about 49 days. In the meantime, the tea gardens have suffered irreparable damage. We will continue to try to compensate some of the company’s losses through work. However, the company has faced losses of crores of taka in these few months.

It is worth noting that the workers stopped work for 6 weeks without receiving wages since August 22 of this year. They had been living inhumane conditions without receiving wages for a long time.

Nipen Pal, acting general secretary of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union, said that according to the decision of the joint meeting of the top leaders of the tea workers and the National Tea Company at the Srimangal Labor Department office, their outstanding 6 weeks’ wages will be paid in two to three installments. Of these, two weeks’ wages were paid on Monday.

Referring to the decision of the meeting, Shafiqur Rahman Munna, deputy general manager (DGM) of National Tea Company Limited (NTCL), said, “The tea workers have been paid their two weeks’ outstanding wages. The monthly paid workers will be paid their one-month salary on December 20.” From now on, the salaries of workers and employees will be paid regularly. Garden employees will be paid 1 month’s salary by December 20. In addition, the ration of tea workers will not be deducted on the days when the gardens are closed. The days when the gardens are closed will not be shown as absent when calculating bonuses and annual holidays.

Meanwhile, the remaining outstanding wages will be paid by March 2025. At the same time, the outstanding contributions to the Provident Fund will be paid by April 7, 2025.
Give your opinion