New daily wage for tea workers set at Tk170

After weeks of protest, the daily wage for tea workers has been fixed at Tk170. 

The Tk50 increase was fixed in a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the 13-member delegation of tea garden owners on Saturday evening, Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus confirmed the development to the media.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks in a meeting with the 13-member delegation of tea garden owners on Saturday, August 27, 2022 Collected

He said: "The prime minister has given her decision. She asked everyone to join work from tomorrow (Sunday)."

In this regard, he said it is necessary to explain that in the tea industry the workers are provided with various benefits, which are borne by the owners. 

In that case, he said, all facilities will increase at a proportional rate, for example, the cash wage is Tk170, along with plucking bonus and factory right work income will increase at a proportional rate. 

Annual leave allowance, festival leave with pay, and sick leave will also increase proportionately, he said, adding that: “All these are paid.” 

The workers of the country’s 167 tea plantations, including 92 in Moulvibazar, continued their indefinite strike for the 17th day on Friday demanding that they are paid Tk300-a-day wages instead of the current Tk120.

The protesting workers said they will not withdraw their strike they launched on August 9 until the prime minister announces Tk300 daily pay for them.

However, the district administration and police held meetings with Panchayet committees of the plantations in their continued bid to convince the workers to return to work.  

As their demand was not met, the tea workers decided to go on a full-scale strike from August 13.

On August 20, after a meeting with the Labour Department, tea workers’ union leaders withdrew their indefinite strike after assurance of raising their wages to Tk145 from Tk120.

However, later in the day, the general tea garden workers rejected the Tk25 daily wage hike fixed by the government and vowed to continue their movement.

After holding meetings with tea garden owners and other stakeholders in the past two weeks, the tea workers’ union agreed to the resumption of work from Monday and get Tk120 as wages for the time being, but that was rejected by the general workers again.

On Tuesday, tea estate owners claimed that the ongoing strike by tea garden workers in Moulvibazar has caused an estimated loss of Tk161.92 crore.