Dooars Tea Garden Workers Demand Reopening of Gardens, Bonus Ahead of Diwali

Employees of seven Dooars tea farms have asked that the Bengal labor department step in early to hasten the gardens' reopening.

When the respective management shut down or abandoned the seven plantations, around 7,000 people lost their jobs. The majority of the estates closed as a result of disagreements between the management and the employees on the amount of the yearly bonus.

"The state labor department intervened and was able to revive several other gardens that had closed for like reasons. Employees in these gardens were also given bonuses. Seven tea plantations are still shuttered, however. We were left with empty hands during the festival days and were not given the bonus, according to Raju Oraon, a senior employee of Bamandanga-Tondu, a garden located in the Nagrakata area of Jalpaiguri district.

"The labor department and the district government should make sure that our garden and the other six closed properties reopen now that the Puja days are gone. We need to get the bonus before Divali, he continued.

The other six closed gardens are located in the neighboring Alipurduar district at Dalmore, Dalsingpara, Raimatang, and Turturi, and Samsing and Kathalguri in Jalpaiguri.

Some estates in the Darjeeling hills have also been closed, according to a labor union spokesman from the Dooars tea area.

But because they didn't get the bonus, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration decided to help the workers by giving them Rs 4,000. Before the celebrations, it benefited the unemployed laborers in the highlands. However, the leader said that seven tea gardens' worth of employees in the Dooars were not provided with such support.

This year, the north Bengal tea business had many closures due to the bonus problem ahead of Puja. Additionally, there have been disagreements on incentive rates among the groups of tea growers. While some groups chose to pay the incentive at a 19% rate, other associations had separate discussions to settle on a different amount. Furthermore, the state administration issued an advise since the groups and unions in the hills were unable to come to a consensus.

According to a senior planter in Siliguri, industry-wide agreements often determine the incentive rate.

However, things were very different this year. The inability of a significant portion of tea plantations to pay bonuses at increased rates was a sign of the industry's financial difficulties. The output on tea estates will start to decrease in November. There is concern that some gardens may struggle to pay their employees during the slow months as their income would cease to flow, he said.