Rajganj, 14th August: The Baruapara Tea Estate in Rajganj was shut down on Friday, by the garden authorities. Due to this, around a hundred garden labourers lost their jobs.
Reportedly, a dispute broke out between the employers and workers in the Trinamool workers’ organization, situated in the Baruapara tea garden of Kukurjan gram panchayat in Rajganj. Following this, the owner closed the garden with a ‘Suspension of work’ notice.
Mosharraf Hossain, a labour leader of the tea garden, said that the labourers came to work as usual. However, the owner asked them to pick leaves with machines, which they disagreed with. After this incident, the authorities closed the garden without paying the workers’ bi-weekly wages. An application will be submitted to the district labour department soon for opening the garden, Hossain further maintained.
Meanwhile, over a telephonic conversation, garden owner Sunny Goyel said that the authorities had decided to give an hour-long lunch break to the labourers and also to reduce their work hours to some extent. However, as the workers disagreed to use machines for picking leaves, they had to shut down the garden due to increasing losses.