CHAPTER III 101
3.4 Implementation Deficiency of Social Security Measures
The Government of India stepped into the scenario of the exploitation that was and is still being meted on the tea plantation workers especially in Assam after the independence of the country. The Plantations Labour Act of 1951 was first formulated and passed inorder to intervene into the various issues faced by the workers and make statutory provisions for the welfare of the workers. The tea plantation industry in Assam in paper makes various provisions for the workers and ideally the management should ideally follow the labour laws and the statutory and non- statutory social security measures. Some of the most significant labour acts that are applicable to the tea industry in Assam are the Plantations
Labour Act 1951, the Factories Act 1948, the Employee State Insurance Act 1951, Maternity Benefit Act, Employee Provident Fund Act, Payment of Bonus Act, Workmen’s Compensation Act 1923, Trade Union Act, Industrial Disputes Act and few others. However, these provisions are hardly followed in the estates. The management usually exploits the workers who are ignorant of their rights.
The Plantation Labour Act of 1951 is applicable to any land used for growing tea, coffee, rubber, cinchona or cardamom with admeasures 5 hectares or more and in which 15 or more persons are employed. It states that it is mandatory for the estates’
management to provide the workers with adequate housing, health facilities, education facilities, proper toilets and washing provisions separately for male and female workers, canteen and recreational facilities for the workers and various other welfare related provisions. However, these are not efficiently provided by the management and the workers have to settle down for the minimum that is given to them. The quarters are provided only to the permanent workers while there are more casual workers than the number of permanent workers. Even the permanent workers are provided with houses in bad conditions where their previous generations have been settled down. These houses have no maintenance apart from those of few estates where they are repaired when complaints are lodged by the workers. Drinking water is a major problem in the labour lines in almost all the estates where field study has been conducted. The workers said that in general, there is problem in having access to clean water. The management gives a deaf ear to their demands even when there is an epidemic in the labour lines.
The subsidized rates of ration are provided to the workers to the minimum limit which is insufficient to meet the expenses of an entire family for a week/ month. Because of the
subsistence rate of wages being too low, the workers are bound to procure their share of ration at subsidized rates and sell it at retail prices in shops to earn extra amount of money. Tough it is stated as a statutory obligation for the management to provide the workers with firewood, it is hardly provided. In turn, a few estates choose to pay the workers a minimum amount to buy firewood which is inadequate. Most of the estates give excuses of non- availability of firewood stock to be given to workers. Thus, they are forced to consume way less food than what is needed. These factors lead to poor health conditions among the workers. The women are not provided with any separate toilet or washing facilities as stated in the acts.
At present there are chances of the central government to amend the Plantations Labour Act of 1951. The wage component in the Brahmaputra Valley is Rs. 89 per day. There is discriminatory wage structure even within the state. The workers of the Barak Valley tea plantations receive Rs. 72 per day only as their daily wage. The proposed modification for the act is that the wage rate should be enhanced to above the minimum wages. As stated earlier, the management has always been violating the plantations labour act, there is a proposal for enacting a Central Tea Plantations Workers’ Wages Act which must be adhered to by all state governments and minimum wages should be fixed by them.
The Factories Act 1948 advocates mainly three aspects: health, safety and welfare including setting standard on working hours, incentives for overtime, inspection staff and leave. In most of the estates, there are poor medical facilities for the workers. There are insufficient medical and para-medical staff, medicines and other medical facilities. The workers most of the times do not have access to the government hospitals outside the estate. In cases of emergency, the patients are referred to other hospitals rather than being
treated in the estate hospital. In the case of safety, the management appears to be extremely irresponsible. With the growing mechanization of the tea industry in Assam, the management takes little interest in training the workers who are least educated and unaware of the machinery hazards that can occur. Thus, there are numerous cases of accidents that take place and the management is usually unwilling to take up responsibility for the same. Some safety measures like masks, apparels are provided to the factory workers. Welfare facilities are provided to the workers in a limited way. Health Insurance is not provided to the workers by the management. As mentioned above, the workers suffer from poor health conditions and even in cases of emergency, they are not taken care of by the management of the estate.
The section 28 of the Minimum Wages Act gives directions to the state government to give a minimum of the fixed wage structure to the workers. However, it is at their discretion whether the minimum wage is granted or not. The management of the tea estates hardly follow these instructions and thus a central law is required that guarantees a fixed minimum rate of wages for the workers.
Table 0-4 Implementation of important Labour Laws Serial
Number
Districts Statutory Obligations (%) PLA
(Housing,
education,medical)
Factories Act (health, welfare, safety)
Maternity benefit
1 Dibrugarh 63 65 38
2 Sibsagar 66 70 47
3 Jorhat 53 64 55
4 Golaghat 69 62 34
5 Sonitpur 64 76 53
6 Cachar 57 53 32
7 Kamrup 55 47 38
Table 3.4 shows the loopholes in implementation of the most important labour laws in the estates. Be it multinational companies or Indian owned estates, the workers get very little of what their right is.
The Maternity Benefit leave which should ideally be for minimum 12 weeks is hardly allowed to the permanent female workers. They work upto few days before the delivery of a child and then resume work immediately preceding that when they are supposed to avoid carrying loads and work under the hot sun for long hours. There are numerous cases of miscarriage among the women workers owing to the burden of work they have to undergo to earn for the family. The delivery of the child should ideally be carried out in the estates’
hospitals but mostly these cases are referred to outside civil hospitals. The doctors do not want take up the responsibility of taking care of the pregnant women. Ambulances are hardly provided to the workers to need to seek emergency help from the civil hospitals when such cases are referred. Their health and safety is completely ignored by the management of the estates. Only in a few of the TATA and Williamson Magor tea estates, there are proper health, sanitation and education facilities for the workers.
Provident fund is a major issue of clashes between the management and the workers. There is weekly deduction of certain amount from the daily wages of the workers as provident fund. Though the fund is collected and accumulated, it is found that the workers never have access to it even when they are in dire need of it. In cases of huge medical expenses or marriage of the workers’ children, when the workers demand for the provident fund amount, the management refuses to give away the amount. These become major causes of grievances among the workers. The workers are of the opinion that the provident fund of the workers are consumed and spent by the management. The management is also supposed to contribute
a certain percentage to each worker fund. Though it has been said that it is done that way, there is hardly any transparency in the financial transactions of the estate. The workers are not aware of what happens to the amount deducted from the subsistence wage. They just undergo the hardship of financial crisis due to heavy deduction from their wages in the name of PF and electricity charges.
During the festive season, usually twice a year, it is mandatory for the management to pay bonus to the workers under the provisions of the Payment of Bonus Act of 1965. As per this act, the minimum percentage of bonus to be paid is 8.33 of the wages upto a maximum 20 per cent. There numerous cases of unrest during the bonus time as the workers are denied bonus sometimes or are paid less than 8 percent of the wages. Strikes and lock outs are common during this particular time of the year. There is grave exploitation of the workers since the management tries to pay as minimum as possible even if the company incurs huge profit. There is no system by which the workers are given their share of profit earned by the company. On the other hand, they are denied their basic rights of bonus and incentives.
Thus it is seen that thought there are various welfare and social security acts that are to be implemented by the tea estates, they are not efficiently enforced by the management. The workers have to somehow exist on the subsistence wage that is provided to them. Due to such exploitation there is growing grievances among the workers and it is necessary channel them through some proper mechanisms of settlement. Here, the role of the trade union becomes indispensable. The trade unions consist of members of the workers’ class who represent them in the bargaining process of the estate between them and the management.