The tea workers of state-owned National Tea Company went on a strike demanding arrears of six weeks’ wages.
The workers of 16 tea plantations of the NTC across the country went on strike on Monday.
The agitating workers said that they would not join their work if they did not get their wage arrears.
On Thursday, the tea workers of Madhabpur tea garden of Kamalganj upazila in Moulvibazar district observed the strike programme for the fourth consecutive day.
On the day, the workers formed a human chain and held a protest in front of the main gate of Madhabpur tea plantation factory at Kamalganj upazila.
They protested under the slogan ‘We are going to starve, give us our wage arrears.’
Panchayat head of Madhabpur tea garden Babul Ahmed, panchayat members Kantilal, Balram Chasha and Suman, labour leaders Biplab Nunia and Nirmal Das, women leader Sonamani Rajbangshi, Jhumki Garh, Rekha Das, Kumari Nunia, Lalita Rajbhar and others spoke at the protest.
Malati Nunia, a woman worker of Madhabpur tea garden, said, ‘We have been staging protest for four days. There is no food in our house. Neither is there any money.’
Dhana Bauri, president of Manu Valley of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union, said, ‘The workers have been staging the protest for four days. But the owner is not paying the wages.
If the authorities do not meet our demands, we will go for a tougher programme.’
Former general secretary of Bangladesh Tea Workers Union Rambhajan Kairi said that the tea workers under the control of National Tea Company in Moulvibazar district were not going to work from Monday.
Workers in three other tea gardens of this company located in the Habiganj district are also not going to work for another three to four days, Rambhajan said, adding that six weeks’ wage arrears have not been paid yet.
Workers are ready to go to work if the company authorities pay their wage arrears today, the workers’ leader added.
General manager of the NTC, Emdadul Haque, said that they were making every effort to pay wages to the workers.
Due to the lack of complete restructuring of their board of directors, they are facing problems in getting loans from Bangladesh Agricultural Bank, the manager added.
The board of directors will be fully reconstituted soon, the GM said, adding that they will be able to pay the wages of the workers as soon as possible.
