Recently, after a meeting between the Hon’ble Prime Minister and representatives of the Bangladesh Tea Association, the daily cash wage of tea garden workers was increased from Taka 120 to Taka 170. In this context, Bangladesh Tea Association arranged a press briefing session in order to inform the media and people of the country about the current situation in the tea industry.
The press briefing took place on 30 August, 2022 at M. Anis Ud Doula Conference Hall of MCCI Annex Office at Police Plaza Concord in Gulshan 1. In this briefing, the Chairman and members of Bangladesh Tea Association took part. In the press brief, the media and people of the country were informed about the present situation of the tea gardens, different aspects of the tea industry, the benefits given to the workers and importantly, the unrest and unexpected situation in the tea industry for increasing the daily wage of the workers.
The tea industry has a long and rich history in Bangladesh. Tea garden owners, tea workers and people of the country have a close attachment to this almost two centuries old industry. High quality tea has been produced since the gardens were established almost 168 years ago. Right from the beginning, planned habitats were built by the tea garden owners where the workers and their families have been living for generations. In the year 1854, Malnichhera tea garden was established in Sylhet and it started commercial production in 1857.
The tea industry has been developed as an industry which looks after its workers’ welfare since the beginning. Tea workers and management are like members of a family. Sincere effort is always given to meet the needs of the workers.
The daily cash wage of the tea workers has been increased by 41% to 170 Taka from 120 Taka according to the direction of the Hon’ble Prime Minister. Bangladesh Tea Association has honoured the decision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister and accepted the steep rise for the greater interest of the industry and country. On the basis of taka 170 cash wages, the daily wage adds up to a total of about 500 Taka per day at a minimum if cash and non-cash or in kind wages are considered.
The Bangladesh Tea Association has the honor to specially mention the role of the daughter of the Father of the Nation, our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Jononetri Sheikh Hasina, who took a strong and visionary decision during the Corona pandemic. She directed to continue the tea production and thus ensured the sustainability of this industry as well as the income and job security of the tea workers. During the time of Corona, there were hardly any Covid-19 patients in the tea gardens and at present almost 100% of the tea workers and their dependents in their have come under free Corona vaccination plans.
To ensure food security, according to the mutual agreement with the tea plantation workers’ union, the tea garden entrepreneurs have been providing ration for all workers and their family members since the year 1948. Every week, a worker is given a minimum of 8 kgs of rice or flour as ration. This amount can go upto 13 kgs depending on the number of members of the family. Tea workers are given this ration at 2 Taka per kg. Every month a worker gets on an average up to 42 kgs of ration at this highly subsidized price. In order to ensure the food security of the workers, they have been using almost 15% of the total land area of the gardens for cultivation purposes, which is about 94,000 bighas. It has been seen that almost 60% of the workers of a garden get these facilities.
In the tea industry of Bangladesh, 70,000 fully concrete and partially concrete houses have been provided to the workers at the cost of the tea gardens. In total more than one lac workers live with their family members in these houses. Apart from these, the extended family of the workers make houses on the land owned by the tea gardens and live there. Retired workers are also provided with housing.
A tea worker and his whole family gets all kinds of medical health services for free whereas in other industries, only the worker gets this benefit. The family of a worker still get this benefit even after his or her demise. It may be noted that in order to ensure good health of the workers, the tea industry has established two huge and modern group hospitals and 84 garden hospitals with a total of 721 beds, 155 dispensaries, crèches for children, which are taken care of by more than 890 medical staff.
As a 168 year old industry, the tea industry has been complying with the labour law from long before other industries. In the 1970s, to eradicate gender inequality, equal pay for equal wages was introduced. Being inspired by the ideals of Independence, it was the tea industry that took the first initiative to give equal rights to male and female workers in our country. The gardens are ensuring all kinds of health security including maternity leave. Since 1939, the tea industry has given maternity leave to female workers. The tea gardens provide all necessary healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth which is unusual in any other industry; and also provides maternity allowances as per law. Above all, the tea industry has been a well-organized and unionized industry for a very long time.
It is a matter of pride that tea production in Bangladesh is very satisfactory. In 2021, the value of the tea produced locally was worth almost Taka 3,500 crores. The production cost of a kg of tea is almost 202 Taka, and the auction price of per kg tea is only 200 Taka. In the last 10 years, the auction price of tea has increased by about 0.16%, the wages of the workers increased by about 73.91 % and the increase in production cost was 48%. In this circumstances, any cessation of work for such will be extremely detrimental for the industry.
The tea industry belongs to all of us and a sustainable improvement of the industry will not be possible without the all-out collaborative effort of the government, the tea garden owners, tea garden workers, and all stakeholders. As a result of the immense hard work of the tea workers, management and garden-owners, last year there was record production in tea of more than 9 Crore 60 Lakhs kgs. Bangladesh secured the tenth position globally in tea production in 2021 despite all the constraints faced by the industry. In order to take this high-potential industry forward, all of us need to work together.
