Sylhet Bureau

The workers of 18 tea gardens under National Tea Company Ltd (NTCL) in Sylhet have threatened to go on strike from Wednesday if their due wages are not cleared by Tuesday.

The workers of NTCL including Lakkatura Tea Garden put up a barricade on Osmani Airport Road in Ambarkhana area of the city on Sunday morning demanding payment of their dues, disrupting vehicular movement for two hours.

Later, they withdrew their blockade programme and threatened to go on strike from Wednesday if their demand is not met by Tuesday.

However, they also said their work abstention programme will continue as before.

Workers said they have not received wages for the past six weeks, suspending production at the 18 tea gardens under NTCL.

Workers had been surviving on rations for the past two months without being paid their wages.

However, even the rations have not been provided for the past week, forcing them into extreme hardship.

NTCL General Manager Emdadul Haque explained that the company’s managing board had been non-operational due to the recent student protests, which caused their bank to withhold loans. As a result, the company has been unable to pay the workers.

He further stated that a new managing board has since been formed and expressed hope that the wages would be disbursed within the next week.

So far, around 1.20 lakh kgs of tea leaves have been collected from 12 tea gardens, with an average daily production of 18,000 to 20,000 kgs of tea leaves. However, the strike has led to significant financial losses for the company.

The workers of Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj expressed solidarity with the movement.