INTTUC state president Dola Sen today
addressed a trade union meeting at Margaret’s Hope tea estate near
Kurseong where she said tea garden workers in the Darjeeling hills
should get the same facilities as their counterparts in the
Terai-Dooars.
Sen said representatives of the hill
INTTUC are worried about the discrimination on wages. She said as soon
as the TMC came to power, it brought about major changes in the daily
wage of tea workers. The wage was raised to Rs95 through a tripartite
agreement, but “unfortunately, the new rate has not been implemented in
the Darjeeling hills because a bipartite meeting in 2011 between the
management and INTTUC had set the rate of Rs95 for three years”.
Sen said a crucial meeting was held on
Tuesday in Siliguri that was attended by various trade union
representatives from the hills and other places of North Bengal. She
said she submitted an 11-point demand for the overall development of
garden workers. The Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme will soon be
initiated under the initiative of the chief minister, added Sen.
Darjeeling Hills INTTUC president JB
Tamang said an agitation will be launched from March 20 demanding
various facilities for hill tea garden workers.(EOIC)