Clarification from ABITA

"Response on the news feature caption "COVID-19 Lockdown: Tea Estates in Tinsukia District flout labour norms on salaries and wages"

I am writing this letter in context to the news article published from Tinsukia captioned "COVID-19 Lockdown: Tea Estates in Tinsukia District flout labour norms on salaries and wages" which is on display in The Sentinel (e-paper) of 1st May, 2020 and concerns tea gardens under membership of ABITA.

I am not aware as to whether your Tinsukia Correspondent had contacted the tea garden managements of ABITA named in the news report but predominantly it appears that the report has been published without taking into consideration the managements' perspectives which I would like to highlight and emphasize here.

I wish to make it clear that:

1. No tea garden has defied the Government Orders when it comes to wage or salary payment. It is a fact that tea gardens have paid 70% of salary as advance to staff but this is due to the extreme financial hardship the tea gardens had to face as a consequence of the lockdown imposed by Government at the very beginning of the manufacturing season. The tea gardens featuring in the news report were out of operation for nearly three weeks. These gardens were accorded the permission to reopen and could commence manufacturing only from middle of April but by then most part of the first flush crop was gone causing colossal loss of revenue to the gardens. The news vitally misses out this important aspect. Over this period of shut down no production or sale of tea took place. Fiscal resources of the tea gardens are over stressed. It is against these compelling circumstances that managements after a great deal of thought decided to offer 70% advance making it abundantly clear to its staff that the entire matter will be reviewed in the near future when the containment policies are lifted and the cash flow position improves.

2. No warning letter has been issued to the gardens by the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Tinsukia (ALC) as has been said in the news report. The gardens did receive a communication from the ALC and the letter attached below was submitted in reply.

3. The statement that there was pressure applied by the managements on the employees to accept the advance as offered is factually incorrect and escalated. We would have expected your Tinsukia Correspondent to contact the respective gardens managements for their views or an opinion before presenting such sensitive statement in the public domain.

4. Last but not the least, we are unable to figure out why Hollonghabi TE featured in the news given the fact that the subject matter on which the news is focused certainly does not concern the estate as no such issue is pending.

We would request your esteemed daily to bring out a news in clarification putting forward our above comments made in response to the news feature caption "COVID-19 Lockdown: Tea Estates in Tinsukia District flout labour norms on salaries and wages" on behalf of our members concerned.

Yours faithfully

Sd/-

Madhurjya Barooah

Secretary, Zone 1

ABITA, Dibrugarh

Tinsukia correspondent clarifies

The story was filed on the basis of Government orders pertaining to COVID-19 protocols and inputs from reliable sources revolving around payment of wages and salaries to the tea garden employees. In its rejoinder, the ABITA stated that 'inter alia tea gardens have paid 70% of salary as advance', the Apeejay Group till date did not pay anything towards salary for the month of March let alone of 70%. The ABITA ought to have refuted the news item published in The Sentinel dated April 11 captioned as 'ACKS condemns tea giant's move to pay 70% salary to employees'.

This correspondent, prior to publishing the story, e-mailed the management based both at Kolkata and Assam but did not get any positive response for being ignorant that the ABITA acts on behalf of the Managements. The ABITA should have clarified the updated status of defaulter notices served on the managers of 29 tea gardens by the Assistant Labour Commissioner Tinsukia which would have been more appreciative but for information to readers none other than MK Shah Group of companies cleared the outstanding dues the deadline of the government order which expired on Saturday, said an official of ACKS. 

Also Read: 14% of India's 504 mn active Internet users in 5-11 age group

Also Watch: Sellers take advantage of helplessness of panic stricken citizens by overpricing commodities