GUWAHATI, Oct 3 - The State Government will start legal action against tea garden managements that fail to comply with the Government�s recent notification of interim wage hike of Rs 30.
Stating this in the Assembly today while replying to a question by Rajdeep Goala, Tea Tribes Welfare Minister Pallab Lochan Das said that it was also for the first time that a composite tea workers wage of Rs 351 had been fixed for the Barak Valley tea estates.
�We are going to prosecute the defaulting tea estate managements that do not implement the Government notification regarding the interim wage hike of 30. The Barak Valley tea estates which have been using the pretext of low productivity to deprive tea workers have also been brought under the composite daily wage of Rs. 351,� he said, adding that the labour unions should inform the Government about the implementation of the notification by the tea garden managements.
Das also held the tea workers� unions responsible for the deprivation meted out to the workers by the tea estate managements. �Wages were never brought to the purview of the Government as it was settled through negotiations between the unions and the managements. The Government never knew what the basis of the negotiated settlements was nor was the matter ever discussed in the Assembly. It is only now that the BJP Government is seeking to put an end to such practices,� he said.
Earlier, raising the issue of lack of uniformity in the wages of tea workers in the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys, Goala said that the Barak Valley workers were not getting the interim relief and asked the Government not to �help tea garden managements by depriving the workers.�
