Level playing field in Assam tea industry now

Forty four years later after the small tea grower movement was launched in Assam, workers working at small tea farms will now be getting equal cash wages like those of their counterparts at organised sector.

The small tea growers movement in Assam came up after 150 years of introduction of tea in the state. It was in 1978 that Soneswar Bora who was agriculture and cooperation minister declared that the state government would like to encourage the Assamese people to take up tea plantations in their homesteads and fallow lands at their disposal.

The small tea grower now produce more than half of the country's tea.

A notification issued by Assam government said the interim wages for small tea garden workers will also be pegged at Rs 232 per day in Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 210 per day in Barak Valley in Assam with effect from August 1.

For the organised sector, wages are Rs 232 in Brahmaputra Valley from Rs 205 per day and Rs 210 from the existing Rs 183 per day in Barak Valley till further orders.

What this means essentially is that there is now a level- playing field in Assam tea industry with workers in both sectors now getting equal daily cash wages. A level-playing field ensures competition in the industry.

The tea industry in Assam has been arguing till now for a level playing field as wage structures for both sectors were different. Till now small tea growers were given wages according to the wishes of the employer.

A senior tea planter told BusinessNortheast: It is a bold step taken by the Govt to atleast bring the most deprived section of the workers by giving them the legal right to wages even though it is far from the estate workers wages who are getting approximately Rs 400 plus which includes cash and non cash benefits.

" While many may argue about its compliance and payment to small tea garden workers by their employers, the workers atleast now atleast have a claim as there is now a govt notification. By not giving the minimum wage, there was no minimum cost and hence small tea garden growers would sell the green leaf cheap which in turn would set in a vicious cycle of low green leaf prices resulting in low tea made realisations" the planter said.

There have been protests by small tea growers in Assam for many years now due to low prices which they get on their green leaf.

" The STG sector by and large will have to pay higher minimum wages which will lead to demanding higher green leaf prices from the green leaf buyers. The artificial low green leaf prices will slowly inch up. Higher prices will mean higher resistance by bought leaf factories to buy substandard leaf" he said.

He said one can visualise the slow but steady upward spiral in actual tea prices when the price of green leaf improves.

" If the minimum wages is paid, it will not pay to pluck substandard coarse leaf . So far the system has been enabling production of cheap teas" he added.

The planter said in the present tea auction model which determines the prices the estate sector can do little to ask for higher prices. "But the small tea garden sector can dictate prices if they can pluck standard leaf" he added.

Another tea planter said- "Low green leaf prices hurt small tea grower sector. Low made- tea base price hurts tea markets and acts as a drag on quality tea prices. Nobody wins !
Higher green leaf prices are the fountainhead for a sustainable future for our industry.

A small tea grower said: It is unfortunate that though the government talked about equal wages why there are two different categories of wages in one state? Why there cannot be different wages for STGs?

"This is a total conspiracy of big planters" the grower said.

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