TEA- Labour s Gains Lost

TEA Labour's Gains Lost Sharit Bhowmik ON July 18, under a three-year wage agreement, the tea garden workers of West Bengal have been granted what press reports have called a 'wage increase'. By the new agreement, the state's 250,000 tea siarden workers (213,000 of whom are permanent) will get increments of 75 paise every year; child workers (aged between 14-16 years) will get three annual increments of 38 paise. At present the daily wages are Rs 9 in Dooars (Jalpaiguri district), Rs 8-94 in. Terai, and Rs 8 62 in Dar- jeeling Hills (both in Darjeeling district). Thus the now promised annual increment hardly carries the wage level lo any civilised mark, if one were to consider the cost of living:. Moreover, the tripartite agreement was signed one year after the earlier agreement expired. The enhanced wages will thus be given from April 1983, and not from July 1982 when the earlier agreement expired