Workers of two tea gardens at Nabiganj upazila in Habiganj continued their indefinite strike for the fifth consecutive day to press home their five-point demand, including immediate payment of their due wages.
The workers of Imam Tea Garden and Bhabani Tea Garden gathered in front of the Imam Tea Garden’s office at about 11:00am and staged a sit-in there up to 1:00pm on Thursday to drum up support in favour of their demands, the agitating workers said.
Bhabani Tea Garden Panchayet Committee general secretary Debul Tantubai said that in the afternoon that they would continue their strike until receiving payment of their wage arrears.
The five-point charter of demands include payment of their due wages and festival allowances, reimbursement of the provident fund, ensuring their house rent and medical allowances.
The agitating workers alleged that the authorities of the gardens did not take any effort to disburse their due wages of Tk 81.59 lakh and festival allowances of Tk 14.47 lakh that remained due since the financial year 2019.
Even the garden authorities had not paid the amount from the provident fund to 35 workers, who retired by this time as the authorities had already embezzled Tk 55.89 lakh from the fund, they alleged.
Imam and Bhabani tea gardens’ chairman GK Mahiuddin Chowdhury Ratan on Wednesday agreed to pay a portion of the wage arrears by Sunday.
The workers, however, said that they would withdraw their strike after getting the payment.
