Tea workers excited by PM’s video conference Saturday

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to hold a video conference with tea garden workers of Sylhet and Chattogram divisions on Saturday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to hold a video conference with tea garden workers of Sylhet and Chattogram divisions on Saturday (September 3) afternoon.
All preparations for the conference have been completed in Sylhet, Moulvibazar, and Habiganj.
Meanwhile, tea workers from across the country are exuberant to talk to the prime minister.
Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mujibur Rahman said thousands of tea workers from Sylhet division are set to join the video conference at 4:00pm on Saturday.
The workers of the country’s 241 tea gardens went on an indefinite strike from August 9 demanding that they be paid Tk300 a day instead of Tk120.
On August 20, after a meeting with the Labour Department, tea workers’ union leaders withdrew their indefinite strike upon receiving assurances of a Tk25 hike. But general tea workers rejected the wage hike fixed by the government and pledged to continue their movement.
After holding meetings with tea garden owners and other stakeholders in the past two weeks, the tea workers’ union agreed to resume work and get Tk120 as wages for the time being, but that was rejected by the general workers again.
Later, the daily pay of tea workers was increased by Tk50 to Tk170. The Tk50 hike was fixed in a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a delegation of tea garden owners.