Your cup of tea getting costlier

Guwahati, August 30 (NNN): The improvement of tea workers' conditions will mean that your cup of tea is getting costlier. The industry has signed an agreement to increase the quantum of fringe benefits to tea workers in Assam. Leaders of five employers’ associations and the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh (ACMS) have signed an agreement to increase the quantity of processed tea to daily workers, firewood to sub-staff and incentives to workers engaged in spraying operations. The agreement, in presence of Union minister Pawan Singh Ghatowar, supplanted the one of 1979 vintage.
The agreement was signed in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh town last weekend after several rounds of discussions between the ACMS and the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations. Chairman of Indian Tea Association CS Bedi also attended the meeting.
According to the new agreement, applicable from September 1, permanent workers who earlier got 600gm of dry tea per month per family will get 900gm per month. Likewise, a casual worker will get 400gm of tea compared to the previous 300gm.
The firewood entitlement, which was fixed at 228 cubic feet according to the 1979 agreement, has now been increased to 342 cubic feet. The firewood entitlement will go as soon as LPG is made available to the workers. It was also decided that the sprayers engaged in gardens will get an additional Rs 3 per day. This is to compensate for the physical impact of spraying insecticides and chemical fertilizers.
The social cost, at present Rs 9 per kg of made tea, would go up after the new package is implemented for some 1.2 million permanent workers in more than 800 tea estates in Assam. “The agreement will have some financial impact but we are doing this for the welfare of the workers since we care for them,” said a tea industry captain.