TEA garden workers went on strike on August 9 for an indefinite period demanding a wage increase. The minimum wage for tea workers is an insignificant Tk 120 a day, whcih is not even a survival wage. All negotiations have so far failed as garden owners are unwilling to consider a reasonable increase in the minimum wage. The Department of Labour on August 17 organised a tripartite meeting, involving the Bangladesh Tea Association and Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union, but no agreement could be reached as owners have proposed an increase up to Tk 140 against the demand for Tk 300. Not only have the garden owners been stalling the negotiation, they have also taken legal steps to harass and intimidate workers on strike. Five tea gardens owners in Moulvibazar lodged general diaries with the police, saying that the strike was damaging their raw tea leaf. Based on the complaints, the police can now interrogate workers and investigate the reported ‘damage’ which is a form of intimidation not too unfamiliar to the workers. The owners’ association needs to recognise that stalling negotiations and legal harassment are not the way to end any strike. They should prioritise worker well-being to minimise their losses during the plucking season.

A number of owners have termed the workers’ demand ‘irrational’ because they claim that the actual wage is Tk 403 with fringe benefits added. The labour law, however, says that housing, health care and education for workers’ children are the responsibility of the employer. The cost subsumed in such benefits cannot be considered part of the wage. In what follows, leaders of the tea workers’ union have contested the owners’ claim and urged the labour ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office to consider the demand of more than 150,000 workers. An earlier Transparency International, Bangladesh study showed that 90.6 per cent of workers’ families still share a single room with their domestic animals. They do not have proper access to safe water, electricity or health care. The research also found that 11.6 per cent of permanent workers were left out of the provident fund while only seven out of the 64 gardens had daycare centres. Tea workers do not receive the 5 per cent of the net profit of the previous year of the company they work for, as laid out in the labour law and the Bangladesh Workers’ Welfare Foundation Act. Actions are rarely taken by the labour ministry against such gross violations of the law.

The Minimum Wage Board has for long left tea workers’ grievances largely unattended and scopes for the owners to exploit the workers. The government must, therefore, heed the demands and increase the daily minimum wage to a living wage. The labour ministry must take steps to ensure an effective oversight of the gardens so that the law is not violated.