Workers affiliated to trade unions of different parties have joined hands to launch a relay hunger strike at Darjeeling district’s biggest tea plantation, demanding payment of dues.

Following the strike that began on 20 August, the management of Longview Tea Estate, around 25 km away from Siliguri, has issued a notice, suspending all work in the garden.

According to the staff at the ‘A grade’ tea garden, which spreads over 508 hectares of land, there are 1252 permanent workers and around 300-350 casual ones, and that they are demanding all pending dues, including a part of last year’s bonus, salary for December last year, tea makers’ bonus, and other arrears.

“Twelve percent of the 20 percent Puja bonus agreed on last year was paid to the workers, but the management never paid the remaining eight percent, which amounts to Rs 31,22,000. Fourteen percent of the bonus for staff and sub-staff for the year 2018-19 and amounting to Rs 16,61,000 is also due. Moreover we are not paid for the month of January this year, and that amount totals to Rs 6,85,000,” said Rahendra Lama, the Head Clerk of the garden.

According to him, there are other dues and arrears for 2018 and bonus for tea makers and casual workers.

“The management has also not deposited provident funds amounting to over Rs 2 crore, while the gratuity amount for the year 2019-2020 that amounts to 5,16,000 is also due,” Mr Lama added.

According to Nima Lama, a Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader, all was well in the garden until demonetization happened in November 2016. “It was after that the situation gradually started to deteriorate and the dues started to pile up,” he said. He, however, added that the “running payment”of wages was up-to-date.

According to trade union leaders, the garden units affiliated to the GNLF, Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (Binoy Tamang faction), the Trinamul Congress and CITU have joined hands to put up the protest. Raju Pradhan, the ‘garden supervisor,’ said all the parties involved in the matter had, in a meeting in March, prepared a schedule for the payment of the dues by 25 June this year. “However, the management has not paid anything so far,” he said.

On the other hand, the Senior Manager of the tea garden, AP Singh Dahiya, said that the management paid Rs 40 lakh to the workers and staff in pending dues by 23 March, soon after the meeting. “However, the lockdown began on25 March, while work stopped and the tea bushes overgrew. We had to skiff the bushes in the entire garden, and this adversely affected production,” Mr Dahiya said.

He also alleged that the workers, who actually started the fresh round of protests on 10 August, had confined him in his office during office hours without food and water.

“Though the last workers’ wages were delayed by seven days due to the lockdown and banks’ closure etc, we paid them in full, but the staff also started demanding their salary that would amount to Rs 10 lakh. We paid them that also and requested them to resume work, but they started thinking that pressuring the management would actually work and started demanding all the past dues. We again requested them to resume work, while also keeping the demand and protests alive, but they are adamant,” he added.

“We also proposed that we would pay 50 percent of the due bonus by 31 August and we actually started the payment, but they are still not lifting the agitation and demanding all the due bonus at one go,” he said.

According to Mr Dahiya, 5.5 lakh MT of tea was produced in 2018, and 3.5 lakh MT last year, while this year the production so far is hardly 1 lakh MT in all the three divisions (two conventional and one organic) of the garden, and, moreover, they are experiencing problems in shipping the produce due to the pandemic and the restrictions around.

“We will definitely pay their dues, but the workers should also understand our problems during times like these,” he added.

“We are not in favour of closing the garden. Despite the fact that the workers cut off my water and electricity connection, removed my guards and workers at my bungalow and issued life threats, I did not mind and gave them a proposal that we will complete the payment by September, and that we will make the upcoming bonus payment as usual, but they did trust us,” he said.

“The company still wants to run the garden after an amicable settlement, but the discipline must be maintained at all cost,” he added.

According to the Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) in Kurseong, Uden Lepcha, they are in touch with the trade unions and the garden management. “We are trying to resolve the issue at the earliest,” he said.