Silchar, Feb. 25: The Cachar Chah Sramik Union (CCSU) is gearing up for a showdown with tea companies in south Assam. The Intuc-affiliated trade union is the largest organisation of tea labourers in the gardens of Cachar region. It has been demanding immediate payment of the daily-rated wage hike under the third tranche of enhanced wages for Cachar plantation workers that came into force on June 1 last year.
This daily wage hike was a component of a four-part wage increase as envisaged in an agreement signed between the Consultative Committee of the Plantations Association (CCPA), the apex body of the tea planters, and the CCSU in 2001. But few gardens in this region have been able to pay the enhanced wage at the rate of Rs 4 a day. They are now plagued by a depression caused by the falling price of the CTC crop and the continuing escalation in the costs of the inputs.
To add to the travails of the planters, the CCSU has demanded implementation of a recent state government notification in a memorandum last week to labour minister Rameswar Dhanowar. The union wants the daily minimum wage for adult tea workers, fixed at Rs 48.50 in the Assam Valley, be applicable to the Cachar tea region as well.
This zone has over 90 working gardens spread over the districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. At present the daily wage of Cachar workers is fixed at Rs 38.50. Though the planters? association has refused, the CCSU is sticking to its stand.
CCSU assistant general secretary and public relations officer D.N. Baroi today said a meeting of the union?s general council would be held here towards the end of March to chart out an agitation.
He claimed that though many gardens in south Assam would be able to fork out the enhanced wages, they are using the steady fall in prices of Cachar tea in Guwahati auctions (now ruling at Rs 43 per kg) as a pretext.
Baroi added that most of the Cachar plantations are offloading more tea in markets in the form of packet tea and wholesale trading to reap higher profits.