Casual labourers to lose Tk50cr for delayed deal

The hard-fought daily wage hike will come into effect retrospectively once tea garden owners formally sign a two-year agreement – effective from January 2021 to 31 December 2022 – with the permanent workers, granting them a daily raise of Tk 50.

When signed, the agreement will allow around 1,03,000 permanent tea garden workers to claim Tk 30,400 each in arrears for the last 20 months, with the total figure hitting more than Tk 313 crore, labour leaders and tea garden owners told The Business Post.

However, around 50,000 casual workers – who work in the gardens only four months a year – will not benefit from the wage hike until the new agreement is penned. Moreover, they will not get a paisa of Tk 50 crore in back pay due to their status as casual workers.

Despite the pay raise, labour leaders are concerned that tea garden owners will delay a new agreement with their permanent workers for as long as they can, keeping casual workers – who are already missing out on arrears – deprived from the latest pay raise for a longer period.

How will the wage hike come into effect?

Traditionally, the Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA) – representative body of the tea garden owners – makes a two-year agreement with the Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union (BCSU) – the lone labour union in the tea sector – to set workers’ wages.

When owners sign an agreement with workers after expiration of the previous tenure, workers usually get arrears in three installments.

The previous agreement between BTA and BCSU lasted from January 2019 to December 2020. So, workers are entitled for a daily wage of Tk 170 from January 1, 2021, which was set by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday.

Though permanent workers will get arrears, casual workers will not.

Providing more details, BTA Secretary Kazi Muzafar Ahammed said, “The permanent workers will get arrears, and we will set the number of installments in a meeting with the BCSU. The association will not facilitate any arrears for casual workers, as they are out of our purview.”

Casual workers deprived of fair pay

During the four-month period every year, casual workers do the same amount of work compared to the permanent workers, and their wages are the same as well.

As casual workers do not get arrears pay, they will only benefit from the latest wage hike after a new agreement is signed between the BTA and BCSU.

Hemanta Kairi, a casual worker of Sunchera Tea Estate, said, “We work the same as permanent labourers. We get the equal amount of wages, but we do not get any arrears. We also do not get housing, ration and other facilities like the permanent workers do.

“If the agreement had been signed on time, we could have enjoyed the pay raise, and the arrears that we deserve.”

A number of union leaders said the delay in signing a deal is a deliberate move of the tea garden owners, because it allows them to pocket the money that should have gone to the casual workers.

BCSU’s Executive Adviser Rambhajan Koiri said, “Owners delay the signing of agreement because this is more profitable for them. They do this to misappropriate the money that casual workers deserve.”

Industry insiders say no clear announcement has been made till date regarding the signing of a new agreement between the BTA and BCSU.

On the issue, BTA’s Kari Muzafar said, “Work for signing of the agreement has already started.  It could be signed at any time.”

Meanwhile, BCSU’s Ramvajan demanded that the agreement be signed within the next month.

A number of labour leaders claimed that the tea garden owners are not interested in paying them fairly, and they are fighting for equal rights and facilities currently enjoyed by the permanent workers.

BCSU’s Treasurer Poresh Kalindi said, “Casual workers were not included in any document or agreement until 2016. From 2016, they are included as a subject of the agreement. But they still have miles to go to establish their equal rights.”

Philip Gain, director of the Society for Environment and Human Development, said, “Tea garden workers in Bangladesh are the lowest paid tea workers when compared to the rest of the world. The agreement should be signed as fast as possible.”

“Moreover, both Permanent and casual labourers should be entitled to arrears,” said the tea industry expert.