GUWAHATI: The Assam cabinet gave its nod for hike in minimum wages of tea garden labourers in the state, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The move is expected to benefit over 10 lakh tea workers across 800 gardens in Assam, which produce about 55 per cent of the country’s tea.
The supply of food grains to the workers by the management would continue as usual.
“The cabinet has decided to hike the wage of tea labourers from existing Rs 232 to Rs 250 (in Brahmaputra Valley) and Rs 210 to Rs 228 (in Barak Valley),” Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters after chairing a cabinet meeting at Gandhi Mandap in Guwahati on Monday (October 02) night.
“The new wage will be effective from October 1,” Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The Assam cabinet decided to hike in wages of the tea garden labourers of the state in the aftermath of Mamata Banerjee government announcing a hike in wages of tea workers by Rs 18.
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On September 22, the Assam CM chaired a meeting of the tea planters’ organisations for the fixation of tea labourer wages.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Indian Tea Association (ITA), Assam Tea Planters Association (ATPA), Assam Branch Indian Tea Association (ABITA), Tea Association of India (TAI), North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and Bharatiya Chah Parishad (BCP).
In the last hike, which effected from August 1, 2022, tea garden workers in Brahmaputra Valley got Rs 232 a day, up from Rs 205 a day.
Garden workers from Barak Valley saw their daily wage hiked to Rs 210 from Rs 183 a day.
Sarma also said the state government has already directed to pay 20 per cent bonuses to the tea garden labourers under Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) before Durga Puja Festival.
The state government has already decided to reserve 3 per cent of grade III and grade IV posts in government departments for the tea garden labourers of the state.