Tea estate workers return to work

Workers at the tea plantations across the country returned to their work on Sunday as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced a hike in their daily wages.

The majority of the tea estate workers in the Moulvibazar district resumed their job amid a festive mood, while there is a weekly holiday in most of the gardens of the district.

Earlier on Saturday, the daily wage of the tea estate workers was raised by Tk 50 to Tk 170.

However, since the gardens are closed on Sunday for the weekly holiday, the work will start in full swing from Monday, said the labour leaders. 

Meanwhile, the workers are also happy as they have resumed their job after 19 straight days.

They said they wanted to make it Tk 300 as it is not easy to maintain their families with Tk 170 daily.

Bijoy Hajara, central committee organising secretary of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union, told the media that the workers returned to their job welcoming the decision of the prime minister.

Besides, many of the workers in some Habiganj tea estates have also resumed operation after a closure of 19 days.

However, all the workers will start working from Monday as Sunday is a weekly holiday for them.

It is worth mentioning that on August 9, the tea estate workers across the country observed a two-hour strike in all plantations demanding to raise their daily wage to Tk 300.

As their demands were not met, they went on a nonstop strike from August 13.

Later, negotiations were made and the workers returned to jobs. But a day later, they started to strike again. Their movement ended on Saturday following the announcement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.