Govt calls tripartite meeting to resolve Darjeeling tea crisis

The West Bengal government has called a tripartite meeting on Friday to resolve the impasse overpayment of bonuses to workers of the Darjeeling tea gardens, according to a government notice. The state assistant labor commissioner office has convened the meeting inviting all the seven trade unions and the garden management bodies.

The unions are demanding a 20 percent bonus while tea garden management was offering just 15 percent. A 12-hour strike was observed last Friday in the hills over the same issue that affected thousands of tourists, and tea production.

Binay Tamang's faction of the tea workers' unions are on a hunger strike over the issue. A previous tripartite meeting remained inconclusive and there had been five bipartite meetings that could not build a consensus.

The tea gardens in the plains Dooars and Terai have agreed to give a bonus of 18.5 percent. At this rate, the bonus amount comes to between Rs 7,000 and Rs 9,000. Around 87 Darjeeling Tea gardens employ 55,000 permanent and 15,000 temporary workers.