Darjeeling tea workers to get last year's bonus before puja

Darjeeling, Sep 25 (UNI) The tea garden workers will finally get their last fiscal's bonus on October six following an agreement between the Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) and trade unions here yesterday.

The issue was settled after two rounds of discussions, DTA officials said here today.

The 'A' category tea workers would receive 12.60 per cent bonus, 'B' category would get 11.60 per cent, 'C' would receive 10.60 per cent, while the 'D' category would have 9.25 per cent bonus this year.

There had been a slight increase in the bonus with 'A' and 'C' getting 60 per cent more than the amount in 2004-05, whereas 'B' got an increment of 55 per cent and 'D' 25 per cent, sources said.

However, 20 tea gardens, including three managed by the West Bengal government, were outside the purview of this settlement as these were not under the DTA.

About 60,000 workers would be benefited from the settlement, the leaders of the trade unions said.

'' We have signed the agreement considering the problems of the tea industry and the DTA's sincere desire to develop it, '' the union said.

The unions had also raised the issue of re-categorisation of the tea gardens, which was done five years ago.

A meeting in this regard would be discussed on November 30.

UNI