Quick Links
- Auction Prices
- Market Update
- Batting Order
- Sale Timings & Order
Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA) yesterday said tea garden workers get wages and benefits amounting to at least Tk 400 per day.
"Although the daily wage of labour in tea gardens is said to be much lower, a worker gets wages and benefits amounting to at least Tk 400 per day," the association said in a statement.
In addition to daily cash wages, direct benefits include overtime, annual leave allowance, festival leave allowance, sick leave allowance, provident fund allowance, attendance allowance and administrative allowance on provident fund, totalling almost twice the average daily wage in cash, it added.
The association said benefits amounting to Tk 175 per day were being provided to the workers to ensure social development and civic benefits.
The statement comes at a time when tea garden workers across the country have gone on an indefinite work abstention from August 13, demanding a daily wage of Tk 300, while they are currently paid Tk 120.
Workers of tea estates across the country, including those in Chattogram and Sylhet, enforced the programme following Bangladesh Tea Workers Union's call on Friday.
The BTA said, "Any disruption in production will result in imports and the expenditure of scarce dollar resources at this critical time."
The association said there were 168 tea production farms employing about 1.5 lakh people and Bangladesh contributes about 3 per cent of the global tea production.
The industry contributes approximately one per cent to the GDP, it added.
The tea industry is an import substitution industry, with more than 90 per cent of the annual produce being consumed domestically, said the association.