Tea estate declares suspension of work
Darjeeling: Management of the Bhojnarayan Tea Estate in the plains of the Darjeeling district declared a suspension of work in the tea estate on Monday. Trouble had been brewing in the garden between the management and workers over disbursement of daily wages which culminated in the lockout.
The tea estate is located in the Phansidewa block of the Siliguri sub division in the Darjeeling district. The lockout notice pasted by the management claimed that they had been intimidated and threatened by the workers which led to a sense of insecurity resulting in the suspension of operations. "The management would condemn incident of intimidation, gherao of managerial personnel on November 9 for over 8 hours when even drinking water was refused to the garden manager," stated the notice.
The notice alleged that an agitation had taken place when the management had proposed the deferment of payment initially for 3 days as also agreed to make advance of approximately 50 percent of it. However workers chose to adopt coercive tactics, stated the notice.
The management claimed that they had issued multiple notices apprising that the garden was reeling under extreme financial crisis and requested workers to work for the stipulated 8 hours daily instead of 5 and a half hour of plucking which was hampering production's leading to the financial crunch.
"An ultimatum was issued to the Management at 4 pm on Saturday that if full payment is not been made by 12 noon on Sunday, a bank holiday, workers and unions would not be responsible for safety and security of the Management. The Management therefore is strongly of the view that it is not possible to run the garden under such fearful and total lawless condition culminating in utter lack of discipline amongst bulk of the workforce" stated the notice thereby declaring a suspension of operations in the tea estate with immediate effect.
The notice declared that no wages or other benefits would be payable during the suspension period.
The tea garden has 600 hectares of land with a workforce of around 1100 workers.
The tea estate workers claim that payments are due for a month (two fortnightly wages) leading to protests.
