Tea pickers back to work with previous wage of Tk120
However, several workers refrained from joining work today citing dissent on the decision.
After eight days of protest, tea pickers of Sylhet have temporarily called off their strike and returned to work from today with the previous daily wage of Tk120, authorities concerned confirmed.
Tea workers' leaders agreed to resume work on the condition that the prime minister will talk to them through video conference and fix the new wages as early as possible.
According to Moulvibazar Deputy Commissioner Mir Nahid Ahsan and Finance Secretary of Tea Workers' Union Paresh Kalindi, the decision came following a meeting of tea workers' leaders with the district commissioner on Sunday night.
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The common workers, however, are not happy with the decision. Reportedly, they will meet on Monday to decide upon their next move.
Meanwhile, the owners have been asked to take the onus of providing the wages and benefits for the last ten days when they abstained from work demanding the wage hike for Tk300 from Tk120.
The meeting was also attended by Superintendent of Police Mohammad Zakaria, Divisional Labour Department Deputy Director Md Nahidul Islam, top officials of multiple intelligence agencies and leaders of the Bangladesh Tea Workers' Union.
However, several workers refrained from joining work today citing dissent on the decision.
The statement issued after the meeting reads tea workers' leaders will formally write to the deputy commissioner to convey their meeting request with PM before the upcoming Durga Puja. They will also put their other demands in writing which will be sent to Prime Minister's Office for consideration.
On August 9, the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union started a two-hour work abstention a day demanding a daily wage hike.
Workers demanded an increase in their wage to Tk300, with inflation rising and the currency depreciating. The workers of 241 tea gardens across the country went on a full-scale strike on 13 August, after four days of two-hour work abstention.
Bangladesh is producing a record amount of tea every year through the toil of the tea workers. In 2021, a record 96 million kilograms of tea was produced in the country thanks to the hard labour of the underpaid tea workers.
Although two agreements on increasing wages were signed, the fate of more than 1.5 lakh tea workers in the country has not changed a bit.
