Tea garden workers in Assam to get Rs 30 interim wage hike from April 1

Guwahati, March 10: The Minimum Wages Advisory Board for tea plantation workers of Assam has approved an ‘interim hike’ of Rs 30 in the minimum wages of the workers.

According to a notification issued by the Labour Welfare Department, the hike will be effective from April 1.

Following the hike, workers in Brahmaputra Valley will get a daily wage of Rs 280 per day and their counterparts in Barak Valley will be entitled to a wage of Rs 258 per day.

The new wages will be applicable in respect of tea plantation workers engaged in the small tea gardens as well.

Traditionally, wages of the workers were fixed through negotiations between the companies and workers’ representatives.

The last such agreement – between the Consultative Committee of Planters Association (CCPA) and Assam Chah Majdoor Sangha (ACMS) – was inked in February 2015, effecting a hike in the wages of daily labourers in tea gardens from the previous Rs 94.

According to that three-year agreement, the wages with effect from January 1 that year was Rs 115. As per the agreement, it was raised to Rs 126 from January 1, 2016 and then to Rs 137 in the third year.

After expiry of the agreement, the BJP government decided to abolish the process of negotiation. Instead, it constituted a minimum wages advisory board to notify the wages. The State government had given an interim hike of Rs 30 in 2018.

In 2021, the government asked tea planters to provide an interim wage hike of Rs 38 to the workers, making their minimum wages Rs 205. In August 2022, the wages were hiked by Rs 27, bringing the rate to Rs 232 in the Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 210 in the Barak Valley, and last year, it was raised to Rs 250 and Rs 228.

The wages in Assam is still much lower compared to states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala has increased the wages by Rs 48 this year, bringing it to Rs 546 per day.

In Tamil Nadu, the workers get Rs 475, following negotiations between trade unions and tea estate managements in October 2025.

The planters had been defending the disparity, citing the ‘kind component’ in the wages like housing, ration, etc., and statutory obligations under the Plantation Labour Act. In Bengal, workers currently get Rs 250.

In 2023, the Assam government had sought technical support from the International Labour Organization to determine an ‘adequate minimum wage’ for both scheduled employment and tea garden workers.

The idea was to promote the idea of ‘living wage’ through research, dialogue and discussion for knowledge building among the government, workers’ unions and the employers. But no conclusive outcome has emerged so far.