PM to sit with tea garden owners Saturday

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hold a meeting with tea garden owners on Saturday (27 August). 

The meeting will be held in the Prime Minister's official residence Ganabhaban at 4pm, the premier's Assistant Press Secretary MM Imrul Kayes told the media on Thursday (25 August).

More than 1.5 lakh tea workers in 166 tea gardens in the country started a movement in the beginning of this month demanding an increase in daily wages from Tk120 to Tk300. 

They went on work abstention for two hours a day for four days from 9 August.

On 13 August, they started a full-day strike and protest. 

The Central Committee of the Tea Workers Union called off the strike after a meeting with the administration on 21 August, who offered to hike the wage by Tk25 from Tk120 to Tk145.

The administration then told the union that the prime minister would sit with the tea workers after her visit to India next month. 

But the common workers rejected the proposal and vowed to continue the strike until their demand for a Tk300 daily wage is met. 

Meanwhile, on the 13th day of the strike, work in all tea gardens in Srimangal Upazila of Moulvibazar, known as the 'Tea Capital', remained suspended.

Tea pickers were spotted holding demonstrations in various tea gardens on Thursday morning. 

In Khajurichara tea garden, students boycotted classes for two hours and held a protest, expressing soliderity with the tea workers' demand to increase wage to Tk300.