Tripartite meet on Darjeeling hill tea garden bonus ends in stalemate

Siliguri: The tripartite meeting regarding a bonus for the Darjeeling hill tea garden workers ended inconclusively on Tuesday, with the Additional Labour Commissioner suspending proceedings after over four hours of discussion.

Despite multiple rounds of negotiations, the meeting failed to resolve the stalemate between the tea garden management and the trade unions representing the workers. The workers are demanding a 20 per cent bonus, which the management refused to give.

“We have demanded a 20% bonus for the tea garden workers, which the management refused to provide. They offered a 12% bonus. Therefore, we will continue our protests,” stated Saman Pathak, a trade union leader from the Parvatiya Shramik Sangathan Sammanaya Mach (PSSSM), a federation of tea garden workers’ unions operating in the Darjeeling Hills.

The meeting, held at the Shramik Bhawan, the Labour Department office in Siliguri, began on Tuesday afternoon. It was the second meeting after a previous session also ended without resolution.