Tea workers on Sunday held a protest rally at Srimangal in Moulvibazar pressing for their four-point demand, including daily wage of Tk 500.
The rally was organised by the Tea Workers Movement at Srimangal Chaumuhani.
Their demands included restructuring the minimum wage board and fixing the wage at Tk 500, reopening of closed gardens immediately and payment of wage arrears and bonuses before Durga Puja, removal of the tea workers鈥� union, and holding of fresh elections.
At the rally, leaders of the tea workers said that a memorandum would be submitted to the labour adviser of the interim government through the Moulvibazar deputy commissioner on next Wednesday.
The rally was chaired by president of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Federation Biplab Madraji Pashi.
Central adviser to Bangladesh Tea Workers Federation lawyer Abul Hasan, organising secretary of the federation Kiran Shuklabaidya and others spoke at the rally.
The speakers said that on August 10, 2023, a gazette was published fixing the daily wages of tea workers at Tk 170.
According to the gazette, there is a provision for an increase in wages at the rate of 5 per cent every year from one year after publication of the gazette. Accordingly, Bangladeshi Tea Association, an organisation of tea plantation owners, issued a circular on September 9 announcing an increase of only 8.50 taka to the basic wage of Tk 170 at the rate of 5 per cent, the tea workers鈥� leaders said.
From the programme, the tea workers鈥� leaders rejected the unilaterally declared undemocratic gazette made in collusion with the owners and the former deposed dictator.
The speakers also said that 12 tea gardens of National Tea Company, four tea gardens of Deondi Tea Company, one of the gardens of Mathiura Tea Company, Muminchara Tea Garden, Phultala Tea Garden, Kalgul Tea Garden and others were on the verge of being collapsed due to corruption, negligence and mismanagement of the owners.
The leaders said that the workers of these plantations have been deprived of wages for a long time and have continued their work without wages, the leaders said, adding that uncertainty in getting wage arrears and bonuses ahead of Durga Puja, the biggest festival for the workers, was gripping them.
Although the tea industry is almost 200 years old, the cash wages of tea workers are still Tk 170, central adviser to Bangladesh Tea Workers Federation lawyer Abul Hasan said, adding that these unjust wages are not enough to maintain their families.
