Tea garden workers have rejected the recent minimum wage recommendations of a government-led tripartite body.
The workers are backed by Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, and lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh and chairman of the parliamentary standing committee for social welfare ministry.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel.
Both believe the workers would not benefit from the recommendations and demanded further increases to the wages and benefits.
Formed after nearly five years’ delay, the tripartite body recommended the same daily wage rates of Tk 117, Tk 118 and Tk 120 that have been provided for the past two-and a-half years.
Following earlier visits to gardens, the body had calculated that the daily wage should be Tk 300, said Ram Bhajan Kairi, general secretary of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union.
But the body, headed by the state-run Minimum Wages Board’s chairman and comprising garden owners’ and workers’ representatives, did not bring changes accordingly in a gazette on the recommendations published on June 13, he said.
Kairi, representing the workers in the body, said this had prompted them to keep from signing the document.
The recommended wages are the lowest among those of the country’s 43 industrial sectors, said Rajat Biswas, general secretary of the Bangladesh Trade Union Shangha’s Moulvibazar unit.
Moreover, workers had demanded being provided two basic wages (by taking one basic wage to be 30 days’ pay) as annual festival allowances instead of the one provided current ly (one basic wage is currently taken as 47 days’ pay) but that too was not accepted, said Pankaj Kondo, vice president of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union.
The proposals did not adopt the state-run Minimum Wages Board’s recommendation of a 5 per cent annual increment, said Gita Rani Kanu, president of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Women’s Forum. The proposals ignore the need for increments, which has left experienced and new workers getting the same pay, she said.
Moreover, it added an “apprentice” category with Tk 110 as the daily pay, which was completely unnecessary, said Pankaj.
The job has historically been passed down through the generations and workers’ children grow up in the gardens and start learning about the ins and outs from childhood, he said.
Garden workers and owners sit every two years to agree on wages, which are then incorporated into the government-initiated wage board formed every five years, said Pankaj.
This time the wage body recommended the interim sittings be held every three years, which went against the interest of workers, he said.
The recommendations include setting up one tube well or well for every 20 workers’ families, said Biswas.
But it does speak of how to ensure that the water is pure as stipulated in the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, he said.
One proposal was for paying workers 0.03 per cent of the respective company’s net profit, in contrast to the 5 per cent recommended by the act, he added.
The minimum wage board for tea workers was last formed on October 20, 2019, whereas the preceding body on January 18, 2009.
This means there has been a delay of nearly five years since the labour act stipulates it be formed every five years, said Raju Nunia, general secretary of University Tea Students’ Association.
Moreover, the recommendations are stipulated to be sent to the government within six months of the body’s formation whereas the latest body sent it after a delay of nearly one and a half years, he said.
According to a “Statistical Handbook on Bangladesh Tea Industry 2019”, published in June last year, there were 166 gardens in the country with a total of 140,164 registered and casual tea workers.
The daily wage has not gone up by Tk 167 even though 167 years have elapsed in the tea industry, said Rajdeo Kairi, convener of Cha Sramik (Tea Workers) Sangha.
The workers’ tireless efforts led to Bangladesh securing 9th position in the amount of tea produced in the world, he said.
The daily wages seem to be low, said GM Shibli, chairman of the Sylhet branch of Bangladeshiyo Cha Sangsad (Tea Association of Bangladesh), an association of tea garden owners.
However, the garden owners provide other benefits such as accommodation, ration and medical treatment, which in monetary terms mean each regular worker was getting a monthly wage of anywhere between Tk 12,000 to Tk 14,000, he said.
“I don’t think the rights of tea workers have been denied,” said Tahsin Ahmed Chowdhury, representing the owners in the board.
Everyone on the board except for the tea workers’ representative has signed the gazette, he affirmed.
Raisha Afroz, secretary to the state-run Minimum Wages Board, Dhaka, said demands, complaints, opinions and suggestions could be forwarded to the board within 14 days of the gazette’s publication.
“I will present them at the next board meeting on June 27,” she added.
