ISERP

Nazdeek: Minimum Wage for Tea Garden Workers in Assam

Jayshree and I can speak to the strategies, challenges, and opportunities we've encountered during our work in demanding minimum wage for tea garden workers in Assam. Because we decided to pursue advocacy efforts rather than filing strategic litigation in the High Court on the issue, our presentation will not be centered on litigation in the traditional sense. However, our efforts have been very legal in nature in that we have provided legal literacy trainings to the mass Adivasi organization which has been leading a statewide wage campaign, filed a complaint with the National HR Commission, ghostwritten op-eds on how the current wage violates statutory and constitutional law, and created advocacy publications targeted on the failure of tea companies, the state, and unions to comply with SER law.

We can also touch on the fact that we deliberately chose to go the mass movement and advocacy approach rather than High Court litigation, considering factors such as the possibility of a hostile judiciary and an identified need of the community to build agency and activism within their community. We'll then update the group on where we are now (declaration by the State Government that minimum wage is Rs 169, compared to the current wage of Rs 94) and continued pressure to ensure compliance by the industry, as well as the potential for a legal challenge by the industry once the wage notification is issued (right now the declaration has been issued and we know that the labour ministry is in the process of issuing a notification), and what strategies and challenges may arise in the pending litigation.