"Workers of two Habiganj tea gardens form human chain", August 3 2023

The workers of two tea gardens at Nabiganj upazila in Habiganj formed a two-kilometre-long human chain along the Dhaka-Sylhet highway on Wednesday, the 11th consecutive day of their indefinite strike, to press home their five-point demand, including immediate payment of due wages.

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The worker leaders in the rally during the human chain reiterated that they would continue their strike until their five-point demand was met.

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.

They 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 already embezzled Tk 55.89 lakh from the fund, the workers claimed.

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Habiganj additional deputy commissioner (revenue) Md Rafiqul Islam told New Age that they contacted the agitating workers at noon and assured them of taking legal action against the leaseholders of the two gardens on charge of not paying the wages.

On July 25, the leaseholders had ensured the district administration to pay a portion of the due wages of the workers by July 28, but they did not keep their word, he said in the afternoon.

‘We will sit this evening to review the matter and to decide to take legal steps against the tea garden authorities,’ Rafiqul said, adding that they are hopeful of getting a good solution to the problem.