The Himal World

Siliguri, 3 March

Problems in tea gardens in the hills of Darjeeling have escalated after workers in different estates refused to pick the first flush of green leaves to press for their demands.

Consequently, the management of some tea estates, especially in the Mirik Sub-Division in Darjeeling district, has issued “No work no pay” notices, much to the chagrin of the workers.

Sources said that it started with the Murmah tea estate in Mirik, which pasted such a notice in the garden on 28 February.

“The management of this tea estate is surprised at the attitude by the workers on 28-02-2025, when there is enough leaves for harvesting and inspite of the management’s deployment order to pluck the leaves, the workers refused to do so causing financial loss to the company and losing out on the sale orders,” the notice said.

“The principle of ‘No work no pay’ would be in force for the employees who did not report to the designated place of work on 28.02.2025 and 01.03.2025,” it added.

Similar notices were also put up in the Manju, Tingling and Singbulli Tea Estates in the sub-division on Sunday and Monday.

Irate workers were seen protesting the notices in the said tea gardens.

It may be mentioned here that workers in several tea gardens in the Hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong have refused to pluck the first flush of leaves, even as the Tea Board of India has allowed such plucking from 27 February for this year.

After a dormant two, two-and-a-half-month period, new leaves start sprouting from the tea bushes at the start of spring. While the Tea Board earmarks plucking cut-off and resumption dates every year, it had stopped plucking of leaves on 30 November last year, while the resumption date was fixed for Hill tea gardens at 27 February 2025.

The first flush in Darjeeling is considered to produce some of the finest teas and are the most expensive in the international market. Tea connoisseurs often refer to such brew from the Hills as the ‘champagne of teas.’

However, workers and unions in some tea gardens had said that they would not go for the first flush plucking this year until the garden managements address their demands.

“We have long back submitted our charter of demands to the management. The demands include payment of due wages, puja bonus and Provident Fund. Other demands include tarpaulins, slippers, firewood etc. However, the management has turned a deaf ear to our demands,” said Sumendra Tamang, the convenor of the Hill Plantation Employees’ Union (HPEU) at Longview Tea Estate under the Kurseong Sub-Division.

“We will not allow plucking of the green leaves until our demands are addressed,” he added.

Tea workers are paid in both cash and kind, with the cash part including the daily wages and the kind component including food grains, housing, medical facilities, education ad other commodities of daily need.