AVIJIT SINHA
The Joint Forum, a front of 23 tea garden trade unions, today threatened to resume the agitation for minimum wage saying it would not let the state "impose" a draft agreement on the pay on workers.
Yesterday, labour minister Moloy Ghatak had placed a draft proposing a daily wage hike of Rs 42.50 for tea garden workers in the hills and Rs 37.50 for those in the plains. Labourers in the hills and the plains earn Rs 90 and Rs 95, receptively, daily. Planters and trade unions had been asked to look into the draft and give suggestions in five days.
The Joint Forum had already said it would not sign the draft.
Chitta Dey, convenor of Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers representing the Joint Forum, said: "Representatives of the government cannot place a draft during tripartite talks. According to the Industrial Dispute Act, the state can act as a mediator and cannot compel either side, trade unions or planters, to sign the draft agreement. During the talks in the past two days, we were surprised to see the labour minister insisting on signing the draft."
He iterated that none of the constituents of the forum would sign the draft. "The workers are disgruntled over the state's lackadaisical attitude to resolve the minimum wage issue. We want to make it clear that there is no question of signing any agreement for the next three years," Dey said.
"If the state forces us to sign or moves ahead with the draft, we would be left with no other option but to launch a movement to demand minimum wage. There will be rallies, meetings on estates, conventions and even industrial and general strike. The government should understand the problem cannot be resolved through coercion."
The forum held demonstrations last month and called a 48-hour tea strike and a 12-hour general strike in north Bengal.
Trinamul trade unions today said they had started consolidating support. "We are distributing copies of the draft among workers. Our leaders are visiting estates and telling workers that a section of unions under the Joint Forum is playing politics," Alok Chakraborty, working president of Trinamul Tea Plantation Workers' Union, said.
Source: Telegraph
The Joint Forum, a front of 23 tea garden trade unions, today threatened to resume the agitation for minimum wage saying it would not let the state "impose" a draft agreement on the pay on workers.
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| Tea Garden |
The Joint Forum had already said it would not sign the draft.
Chitta Dey, convenor of Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers representing the Joint Forum, said: "Representatives of the government cannot place a draft during tripartite talks. According to the Industrial Dispute Act, the state can act as a mediator and cannot compel either side, trade unions or planters, to sign the draft agreement. During the talks in the past two days, we were surprised to see the labour minister insisting on signing the draft."
He iterated that none of the constituents of the forum would sign the draft. "The workers are disgruntled over the state's lackadaisical attitude to resolve the minimum wage issue. We want to make it clear that there is no question of signing any agreement for the next three years," Dey said.
"If the state forces us to sign or moves ahead with the draft, we would be left with no other option but to launch a movement to demand minimum wage. There will be rallies, meetings on estates, conventions and even industrial and general strike. The government should understand the problem cannot be resolved through coercion."
The forum held demonstrations last month and called a 48-hour tea strike and a 12-hour general strike in north Bengal.
Trinamul trade unions today said they had started consolidating support. "We are distributing copies of the draft among workers. Our leaders are visiting estates and telling workers that a section of unions under the Joint Forum is playing politics," Alok Chakraborty, working president of Trinamul Tea Plantation Workers' Union, said.
Source: Telegraph
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भारतको ऐन-सभाले १९४८ सालमा मिनिमम वेज एक्ट पारित गर्यो, जसलाई भारतका श्रमिकहरुको सुरक्षाको निम्ति बनाइएको भनियो। तर पनि दार्जीलिङ पहाड-तराई-डुवर्स र असमका चिया बगानका श्रमिकहरू मिनिमम वेज देखि वञ्चित छन्। अत्यन्त कम ज्यालामा यिनीहरूले आफ्नो श्रम बेच्नुपर्छ। दक्षिण भारतका चिया बगानका श्रमिकहरूले धेरै बेसी ज्याला पाउँछन्, तर बंगाल र असमको चित्र भने बेग्लै छ। यहाँका श्रमिकहरूले ९०-९५ रुपियाँ ज्याला थापेरै सन्तुष्ट हुन पर्दैछ। भनौं भने १९५१ सालको प्लान्टेसन एक्ट अनुसार बगान मालिकहरूले श्रमिकहरूलाई जे-जे सुविधाहरू दिन बाध्य छन् त्यो पनि यहाँका श्रमिकहरूले पाइरहेका छैनन्। समस्त अंचलभरि नै चलिरहन्छ कुपोषण-जिउँदो कंकालको मृत्युको सिलसिला। गत १०-१५ वर्ष देखि नै यहाँको चिया बगानहरूमा यस्तो घटनाहरू दिनचर्या भएर गएको छ।
ReplyDeleteतर कुटाई मात्रै खाँदै त इतिहास बनिन्दैन। शेष कालमा जुझारु मानिसहरूले नै इतिहास निर्माण गर्छन्, अधिकार आर्जनको इतिहास। यो अभूतपूर्व आन्दोलन पहाड-तराई-डुवर्सको चिया बगानहरूमा गुञ्जीरहेको छ। समस्त स्तरको श्रमिकहरू रणभूमिमा भेला हुँदैछन्। तिनीहरूको आवाजमा एउटै माँग छ— न्यूनतम मजदुरी वा मिनिमम वेज निर्धारण गर्नु पर्छ र लागु गर्नु पर्छ। यो भन्दा कम्ति कुनै सम्झौतामा यिनीहरू संग्रामदेखि पछि हट्नु राजी छैनन्। हामी पनि कसरी यो संग्रामको लप्कोको उत्तापदेखि टाढा बस्न सक्छौं र? त्यसैले यो चलचित्र। चिया बगानका श्रमिकहरूको ऐतिहासिक लडाईको रक्तिम दस्तावेज।
साथ दिनुहोस्।
https://vimeo.com/113154094
Minimum Wage Act was passed as a legislation in 1948. And it was said to be meant for the workers. But the tea garden workers of Darjeeling hills-Terai-Dooars and Assam are deprived of it. The workers in the tea gardens of southern India are paid much higher in comparison to their counterparts in West Bengal and Assam. The workers are mostly deprived of the benefits they deserve according to the Plantation Labour Act 1951. The entire region goes on witnessing malnutrition-starvation and rally of death. This has become a common scenario in this tea-belt since last 10-15 years.
But things cannot end in just facing deprivation helplessly. At the end it is people, the struggling people, who write the history, the history of winning their own right. An unprecedented struggle is flaring up now in the tea gardens of hills-terai-dooars. Workers from all strata are gathering in the path of struggle. They are demanding for determination and implementation of minimum wage. They would not settle in anything lesser. How could we keep ourselves apart from that heat? Thus comes this film. Snippets of documentation of this historic struggle of the tea garden workers.
Stand beside.
https://vimeo.com/113154092