Tea pickers return to work with new daily wage of Tk170

After protesting for over two weeks, workers of most tea gardens finally returned to work on Sunday – a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised their daily wage to Tk170 from Tk120. 

Also, the workers held a rally on Sunday thanking Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the pay bump of Tk50.

The tea workers of Moulvibazar joined work from today (28 August). 

Meanwhile, there are a total of 23 tea gardens In Sylhet. Of them, nine remain open on Sunday. 

Workers of these tea gardens have already resumed work while the others will join on Monday. 

According to sources, Habiganj tea workers will also join work from Monday.

However, a section of workers has expressed dissatisfaction with the hike.

When contacted, Raju Goala, president of Sylhet Valley Tea Workers' Union, said, "Our strike has ended. Workers resumed work today morning." 

Ratan Munda, a worker of  Finlay Tea Garden in Sreemangal, Moulvibazar, said, "It feels good to return to work after a long break. But it would have been better if our daily wage was raised a little more. 

"It is quite difficult to live on a Tk170/day pay in today's time."

The workers at the country's 167 tea gardens launched protests on 9 August, demanding a rise in their daily wage to Tk300 given soaring commodity prices. 

They abstained from work for two hours daily for four days before the full-scale strike began on 13 August.

Some of them went back to work after the authorities assured them of the premier's intervention to end the impasse and the owners offered a Tk25 hike in their daily wage to Tk145.