Over 60 tea gardens of Jorhat have declared 20 percent bonus: Official

Jorhat, Oct 4: The process of payment of bonus to tea estate (TE) workers have been going on smoothly in Jorhat district so far with 68 of the total 86 tea gardens in the district have paid the bonus amount to the workers and all gardens have declared the quantum of bonus.

Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC), Jorhat, Rupali Pegu told The Assam Tribune on Thursday evening that over 60 gardens have declared bonus at 20 per cent and most of the gardens were paying by splitting in two installments - one before Durga Puja and the second before Magh Bihu or Fakua (Holi).

Pegu said that the quantum of bonus of two TES – Hoolungoree (Andrew Yule Group) and Sycotta (Assam Tea Corporation Limited-ATCL) was settled at a meeting held at the Labour Inspector's office at Titabar on Thursday which was attended by representatives of the management of the gardens, workers' union along with other officials of the Labour department.

Pegu said that the Sycotta workers were seeking the payment by October 5 and efforts were on to see that the payment was done at the earliest.

Earlier, the State Labour department had advised the TEs to declare quantum of bonus by September 15 and complete disbursement by September 25.

Customarily the bonus is paid to the tea workers by the management on the eve of Durga Puja, which this year commences from October 9.