Darjeeling, Aug. 4: The Jungpana tea garden management skipped today’s meeting with a labour official and
the estate’s union saying “there is no point in attending any further
meetings” till it got written assurances on two of its demands.
The garden’s
representative had yesterday said the management wanted written
assurances from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-led union on removing a union
leader accused of threatening managerial staff and of not interfering
in decisions of the management.
The Kurseong
garden, that had fetched the highest price for its brew among Darjeeling
teas last year suspended work indefinitely at the garden on July 31
after managerial staff complained that they were threatened by a section
of workers.
Kurseong assistant
labour commissioner S. Simick, in whose office the meeting was held,
today said: “No fruitful discussion happened as the management didn’t
attend the meeting.” Leaders of the Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai
Dooars Plantation Labour Union turned up at the meeting.
Sandeep Mukherjee,
the principal advisor to the Darjeeling Tea Association who represented
Jungpana at a meeting yesterday, too, said: “Unless the union gives us
in writing that they would remove a leader involved in the incident and
would not interfere in decisions that are the prerogatives of the
management, there is no point in attending any further meetings.”
P.T. Sherpa, the
president of the Morcha union Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour
Union, said they could not remove the leader unless an internal inquiry
was conducted by the union, a matter the outfit had spoken about
yesterday.
“How can we just
remove a leader without finding out whether he was at fault. The
management’s stand is making us think that the issue is now about
settling personal scores, instead of addressing the concerns of
workers.”
Mukherjee, however, refuted the charges that the management was trying to settle personal scores.
“There were
unilateral strikes for two consecutive days in the garden before
suspension of work was declared. This goes on to prove that even the
workers are with the union leaders and hence, there is no question of
this being an issue of settling individual egos,” he said.
“The union should
have the foresight of removing the accused leader. Otherwise, when the
garden reopens later, the leader would get back at the management with
vengeance,” he added.
Source: The Telegraph
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