Plantation Workers Interests Sacrificed to Keep Owners Happy

7/25/2019 Plantation Workers Interests Sacrificed to Keep Owners Happy

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Plantation workers interests sacrificed to keep owners happySushovan Dhar

The eastern states of India, Assam and West Bengal, together contriute around !"# of the teaproduced in India$ %mploying &$' million workers in around &,("" tea gardens, this &(" year old

industry is also one of the economic pillars of the region$ It is estimated that etween )*! millionpeople depend on the tea industry in the region for their livelihood$ The industry is a ma+or foreignechange earner with volumes of eport and the prices rising every year$ The domestic market isalso epanding fast prompting the Tea Board to forecast that y '"'" India-s tea production wouldfall short of estimated demands$ Though this trend may e good for our current*account deficiteconomy and for the companies owning plantations, it has hardly any positive impact on the lives ofthe workers$ They still remain as the most poorly paid workers in the organi.ed sector$ The totalwage of a tea plantation worker in the states of Assam and West Bengal is less than any otherorgani.ed sector workers and in West Bengal this also falls much short of the unorgani.ed sectorworkers covered y /inimum Wages$ 0or instance, the agricultural workers receive 1upees 21s3'") as minimum daily wage while the tea garden workers even after the recent hike are su+ected to

work at 1s &&'$(" per day$ 0urthermore, the vast ma+ority is engaged as daily rated workers andwork on a -no work no pay asis-$

West Bengal is the second largest tea growing state in India after Assam and home to the worldrenowned Dar+eeling tea$ The state contriutes more than '& per cent to India-s total tea production$4orth Bengal 2the region of the province of West Bengal where there are tea gardens3 has aout '!)gardens spread out in the Dar+eeling hills, Terai and Dooars region with around 5,(",""" workers$

Tale &6 P17D89TI746 2:uantity in /illion ;gs, Source6Indian Tea Association ITA3

&%ports '&" &


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4agaland

Prominent players in the tea industry in West Bengal are Tata Tea, Williamson /agor ?roup,?oodricke ?roup and Duncans ?roup$ The Williamson /agor ?roup has recently invested 8SC '"million on its facilities to increase its packaged tea usiness$

The lush green and charming view of the tea estates of 4orth Bengal hide a leak reality *malnutrition and starvation deaths$ /ore than &"" people have reportedly died in five closed teagardens since anuary '"&5$ owever, the current Trinamool 9ongress 2T/93 government in thestate, like its predecessor, the eft 0ront government, refuses to acknowledge any such death$8nofficial estimates say that the death toll for the past one and a half decade, of workers and theirfamilies, in the closed gardens of Dooars and Terai, may well cross &,"""$

4ew Wage Agreement

A tripartite agreement with every union 2i$e$ of 9PI/, 1SP, 9ongress, Trinamool 9ongress 2T/93etc$3 ecept Progressive Plantation Workers 8nion 2PPW83, as signatories was signed on '"th0eruary '"&($ The agreement provides for an increase of 1s$ &!$(" and 1s$ ''$(" for the first yearin DooarsETerai region and ill region respectively, followed y 1s &"$"" each in net two yearsconsecutively, therey raising the daily wages of daily rated workers to 1s$ &&'$(", 1s$ &''$(" F1s$ &>'$(" from April '"&5 to /arch '"&!$ Though the tea industry is in the Schedule of /inimum

Wages in West Bengal, aout 5 decades ago, the unions decided that it was more advantageous togo for an industry level tripartite agreement, as minimum wages were increasing very slowly$ 0orsome years, this was advantageous for the workers , ut later with higher rates of inflation, andweakened argaining power of the unions, wage increases ecame marginal and tea plantationworkers found they were eing paid pittance wages$ In '""(, things worsened further$ In theagreement, wages were increased y only 1s$= over a three year period$ Worst still, wages, for thefirst time, ecame productivity linked$ orrifyingly, this defeat came after a long and resolute strikeof almost &( days y the unions, when many workers lost wages for that period$ In '""=, again thetripartite agreement could yield only an increase of 1s$&5 over three years and in '"&&, wages wereincreased y 1s$'= to reach 1s$6 Wage increment vis*a*vis inflation

Gear Increment21s3 Wage 21s3 Increment 2#3 Inflation for thecorrespondingperiod2compounded3

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settlement, instead it stuck to the call to incorporate the tea industry within the purview ofminimum wages, under /inimum Wages Act, &!$"" in three

years$ The ?overnment of West Bengal pushed the unions to accept that amount and promised thatthey would look into the minimum wages matter later$ At that point all the unions +ointlycondemned the proposal and re+ected it, leading to a failure of that round of negotiation$ The presentagreement, which is eing termed a -Political @ictory- has een settled after a few months foreactly the same proposed amount$ In a situation of freKuent starvation deaths and deaths due tomalnutrition of the tea workers, what is the political victory achieved y increasing 1upees &"*'" aday when on a national scale all the 9entral trade unions are demanding a minimum wage of 1s$&("""E* per monthH In terms of amount of wage increase this agreement can therefore e termednothing short of shockingJ$

A Kuestionale victory

Some unions have claimed a victory ecause the agreement is to remain in force till the wages

under /inimum Wage Act were effected$ The agreement refers to a government notification,

declaring the formation of a/inimum Wages Advisory 9ommittee for the state of West Bengal to

hold enKuiries and advise the State ?overnment in the matter of fiing and revising the minimum

rates of wages payale to the employees$J The agreement reKuested this committee to give its report

as early as possileJ$ The ?overnment notified the minimum wage advisory committee on &!th

0eruary '"&5, three days efore the agreement was signed$ The agreement therefore did little to

add more teeth to this notification to ensure minimum wages in any way$

4o deadline has een mentioned in the agreement for the completion of the 9ommitteeLs report and

its sumission$ 4or is there any guarantee that the State ?overnment will accept the advice of the

committee and declare a minimum wage$ The /inimum Wages Advisory 9ommittee on the other

hand has een given a term of two years only$ ;eeping in mind the history of roken promises in

the tea sector, it is little wonder that a section of the workers feel they could e cheated once again$

If an agreed and signed tripartite agreement on @DA can e flouted so easily, we have reason to

elieve that a separate and de*linked government notification can e easily thrown into the waste

paper in$ The signatories of the agreement have said that they shall continue their struggle for

implementation of minimum wage$ Some of the ma+or unions gave a deputation to the ?overnor

demanding minimum wages +ust a few days after signing the agreement, which shows that they

have little confidence in the agreement they signed$ If struggle is the only way to achieve a decent

wage, then why did we stop and not carry on with the same unprecedented unity for a few more

monthsH Was there any sign of workers getting tiredH Ir was the agreement giving us a remarkale

raise that would encourage the workers for more militant strugglesH 4either of these is true$ So the


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Kuestion still remains M why this agreementH whose interests were servedH

It is a shame that the workers remain impoverished and that the collective argaining process isused for maintaining systemic eploitation in relative and asolute terms$ Tea workers earn apittance of the profits garnered on the open market, especially in foreign countries$ In effect,

multinationals and local capitalists are eKually responsile for the super*eploitation of workers$ Itis hard to elieve that tea workers and their families can sustain on these wages*even if the cost ofliving is minimal$ This collective argaining process maintains a system of oppression$ We mustrecogni.e the relative and asolute forms of eploitation among tea workers and all peasants in theregion$ 1elatively speaking they are no etter off**in asolute terms they are entrenched in povertythat is reminiscent of serfs in Tsarist 1ussia or slaves in the 8nited States$

Postscript6 The role of the eft and other small left unions

Who is the leader of the tall claim of political victory and successful settlementH It is the 9IT8, thetrade union front of 9PI/ who did not other to consider the implementation of minimum wage in

the tea*sector in their >5 year long rule in West Bengal$ Instead, they have continuously denied the

series of starvation deaths of tea workers during their regime$ They painted those deaths as natural

or due to diseases or due to old age$ 4ow, when they are out of power and similar deaths are taking

place one after another, their past shameless defence of starvation deaths through a series of lies is

eing reiterated countered y the T/9 government in a copycat fashion$ When 9PI/ left office in

'"&& the daily wages of the tea workers were +ust 1s$ )=$ 8nfortunately, unions and forces that

claim to e struggling are tailing this 9PI/$ We are firmly of the opinion that the agreement that

has een signed and the settlement made is a starvation wage agreement$

It is unfortunate, ut a fact that unions of 9PI/ ieration, S89I293, 9PI/ ;anu Sanyal group

and P99*9PI/ are also part of this agreement$ owever, they are merely paper unions and

represent some tens of workers among few lakhs and therefore have no real claim of things shaping

in tea industries$ /oreover, oth the 9PI/ ieration and S89I293, who otherwise have some

presence in the state and in other parts of the country, are suffering from political frustrations and

are taking refuge under the wings of 9PI/, oth in the state and in the country as a whole$ While

for the P99, the political ankruptcy has reached such a level that it advocates an alliance even withourgeois forces like the 9ongress or the T/9 in the name of fighting the BP-s rise$ The necessity

of an alliance with the ourgeois parties to fight the BP, while depriving workers of their legitimate

dues and rights is highly Kuestionale$ Though it is a matter of another deate, one thing is sure for

now that it is impossile for these small left organisations to independently hold the flag of class

attle high$ We elieve that this role in the trade union field is merely the outcome of their political

decision to trail after the 9PI 2/3 in the name of a igger left unity even while the 9PI 2/3 is

running after the 9ongress, and all the so*called secular democratic ourgeois parties$

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Plantation Workers Interests Sacrificed to Keep Owners Happy