Tea entrepreneurs and workers reach 3-point agreement; protest called off

Bhadrapur, May 14 . Tea workers have called off their protest after Nepal Tea Producers Association made an agreement in writing to provide remuneration to workers in line with the Labour Act and Regulation.

Tea workers have hit the street since last April 1 when the tea estate and industry operators refused to pay government-designated minimum wage.

The agitating sides and Nepal Tea Producers Association reached a three-point agreement at Birtamod on Monday evening.

The tea entrepreneurs have agreed to remunerate workers as per the government-stated minimum wage, , informed Shanta Kumar Ri, State-1 Vice-Chair of All Nepal Trade Union Federation Santa Kumar Rai, who took part in the dialogue.

With this the tea estate entrepreneurs have agreed to provide basic salary Rs 231, dearness allowance Rs 145 and additional Rs 42 for security guard serving in the estate/industry. The entrepreneurs have to clear remuneration dues to workers from mid-July to mid-April last year.

The second point of agreement is to implement the provisions of Labour Act-2074 BS and Regulation-2075 BS in case of the workers of te estate and industry.

The final point is that the workers would come back to their daily job from today by ending the protest.

As many as 50,000 tea estate workers have been on warpath for over past 45 days demanding minimum wage. The workers would come back to their daily duty following the signing of agreements, said Chairperson of Nepal Tea Estate Workers Association Deepak Tamang.