West Bengal: Minimum wage for BLF workers hiked, owners protest

[Tea Plantation Workers - Related News]

The Bengal labour department has raised the daily minimum wages for workers of bought-leaf-factories (BLFs), units that buy tea leaves from small tea growers. The daily minimum wage for a worker of a BLF in civic bodies, development authorities and industrial townships, also referred to as zone A, has been fixed at '290.23, while the rate is '256.5 in other areas, referred to as zone B. There are over 130 BLFs which have around 40,000 workers, officials said and they buy from around 30,000 small tea growers, accounting for nearly a third of north Bengal's tea production. Earlier, the minimum wage was '143 for both zones.