KOLKATA: Notwithstanding the recent letter written by Tata Tea to the four West Bengal unions, assuring that the proposed recast of the North Indian Plantation Operations (NIPO) will not affect employees' service conditions, the majority CITU union is still opposed to the entire move.

CITU's main fear stems from the fact that the new company — Amalgamated Plantation Pvt. Ltd. — will not be a wholly owned Tata company, might end up exploiting workers who had toiled for the original company. "We are against the entire recast and are also opposed, in-principle, to employees picking up shares," Montu Bose, general secretary of the Chah Bagan Mazdoor Union (CBMU) told The Hindu from Birpara in Jalpaiguri district.

The CITU-affiliated CBMU holds sway over most of the employees in four Tata Tea estates in the Dooars region in North Bengal. It is the majority union at the Rangamati tea estate which employs the single largest chunk of 2,200 workers. The other three estates are: Damdim, Neora and Batabari which together produce five million kg of black tea. Mr. Bose said he had received the letter written by Dipankar Borah, Vice-President, North India Plantation Operations (NIPO), but his reservations still remained. However, Mr. Bose said that it had been decided that in the interest of the current industrialisation drive in West Bengal, no movement would be made by the unions to register their protest.

Eager to evolve a participative model for its ongoing restructuring exercise at the NIPO, Tata Tea through a letter written to the four major unions in West Bengal had sought to assure that wages, rations and other welfare provisions under the Plantation Labour Act (PLA) would be honoured by the new company, APPL. At a press conference, Tata Tea Managing Director, Percy Siganporia, had said that the company had begun to receive positive response from the Assam workers. The proposed recast involves 20,000 workers in Assam and 10,000 in West Bengal besides 850 staff and 156 management personnel.

The letter also mentioned that interest-free loan of Rs. 8,000 would be given to workers and Rs. 20,000 to the staff for picking up the equity at par with the repayment being limited to Rs. 50 per fortnight for workers.

Mr. Siganporia said that the equity of APPL would be between Rs. 150 crore and Rs. 170 crore and the participation of the workers would determine how much Tata Tea and Tata Investment Corporation would eventually hold.

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