Over 400 tea gardens in Assam yet to clear PF, gratuity dues

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Despite repeated warnings by the authorities concerned, a section of workers and employees of the over 400 tea gardens in the state has not received their dues of provident fund and gratuity.

According to official sources, a section of the defaulting tea estate has been attached and auctioned. However, even after that, most of the tea estates have not yet cleared their workers’ dues.

According to Labour and Tea Welfare Minister Sanjay Kisan, a large number of workers in over 400 tea gardens are yet to get their PF dues. The managements of these tea estates were asked to clear the PF dues of their workers within a month. Kisan said, “Around 20,567 workers and employees of 489 tea gardens have not received their gratuity amounts. The Labour Department filed cases against a section of tea garden management, asking them to clear the gratuity dues of their workers. We have already auctioned the Moderkhat TE and cleared the dues of workers, and we gave the surplus amount to the garden management.”

According to the minister, the state has three tea gardens that have been either closed or defunct. The three gardens are Charaideo Parbat TE, Kamini TE, and Bogidhola TE.

Kisan further said, “The state has 4.56 lakh permanent tea labourers, and 1,846 of them have not yet received Rs 4.64 crore in PF dues from the tea estates.”

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