Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
Tea garden workers erupted in protests across Assam on Thursday with some blocking highways against the cashless system of payment of wages and the Centre’s move to do away with the system of providing subsidized ration to them. The workers, who came out under the banner of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), demanded the government immediately roll back the decisions. The Union labour ministry is planning to draw curtains on the British-era system of “cash and kind” wages for the plantation workers and make cash payments in their bank accounts mandatory. Under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, the wages of plantation workers include cash besides ration, healthcare and education services (in kind).
