Sylhet Office

The workers of Gulni tea garden in Goainghat upazila of Sylhet have been living inhuman life for some time due to various reasons including stoppage of weekly wages for three weeks.

Tea workers have not been getting paid for three weeks in Gulni Tea Garden of Fatepur Union of Goainghat Upazila in the district.

Hundreds of tea workers' families are in trouble. Even though the salary has stopped, their work has not stopped. One meal lasts for three days. The life of the tea workers is miserable in the inhuman day-to-day life. There is no guarantee when the salary will be received. The future quality of life of tea workers in Durripaka is very dark. Tea workers want payment of dues, ration, medical, permanent accommodation.

Women tea workers said, we are helpless tea workers. After working all day, the little amount of money we get, we live on. But the Bagan authorities have started torturing us for quite some time. They stopped all our benefits including salary and bonus. Now I don't understand how we will run the family. One day we eat rice, another day we have boiled potatoes, next day we have to eat boiled kachu. They say there are five to seven people in each family but only one worker. Can a family survive on the wages of one worker in the family?

Debu Bauri, General Secretary of Gulani Tea Garden Veli Committee, said there are about nine thousand tea workers in twenty-three tea gardens under him. Talked with the owners, efforts are underway to pay the tea workers.

Shahabullah Sarkar Nayan, the manager of Gulni tea garden, said that although the production of tea is high, it has to be sold at a low price. In this the owner is in loss. How much can be run with subsidy. Still the owner is trying to take bank loan to pay the salary of the tea workers.