Tea workers of Duncans Industries Ltd. (DIL), which has 16 estates in north Bengal, have proposed to go on a strike on April 16, demanding regular wages and optimal living conditions while 25-30 percent of its workers are reportedly migrating to other gardens.
The proposed strike is being called by a joint forum of 24 unions of tea workers in the hills of north Bengal.
"Since last few months, over 25,000 regular workers and several other contractual workers in DIL are not getting regular wages and the food grain distribution in the tea garden is also affected," Ziaur Alam, convenor of the forum and secretary of Left-backed CITU, told IANS.
He alleged that the company was facing fund crunch due to some issues with its bankers, and this has impacted the estate's infrastructure, wages and foodgrains supply.
"Sometimes the electric connection is also cut in the estates, which stalls tea operations. As this is going on for quite sometime, 25-30 percent of the workers in DIL are migrating to other states and locations," he said.
Alam alleged owing to the funds problem, crore of rupees of the worker's provident fund account and gratuity are not being paid and the matter has been taken up by the government, which, however, has "failed to deliver its promises".
"We had taken up the matter with the state's labour ministry, and it was agreed to normalise the wages. However, it did not happen. The Forum now has called for a strike on April 16," he said.
The state's labour ministry will be meeting DIL management on April 14 to discuss the issue.
"If something works out at the April 14 meeting between the state government and DIL, we will postpone the strike, else it will happen on April 16," the union leader said.
The company's tea garden employs over 25,000 regular tea workers and numerous non-regular staff with an estimated Rs.1.25 lakh resident population in the estates.
DIL closed the fiscal period from October to December 2014 at a net loss of Rs.6.07 crore compared to a profit of Rs.1.03 crore for the corresponding time period last fiscal year.
As on December 31, 2014, 16.94 percent of DIL's shares were available for public trading while 83.06 percent of the shares are held by the promoter and promoter's group.
