Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya has said the New Labour Codes will transform the lives of tea and cinchona workers in the Darjeeling hills, Terai, and Dooars region of West Bengal.

While interacting with the leaders of Tea & Cinchona labour trade unions and their stakeholders, Mandaviya said for decades, workers in this historic tea belt, which is India’s first industrial region in the mountains, have suffered under outdated, colonial-era labour practices. 

 

Hitting out at the West Bengal government, the minister said the state government has denied dignified wages to the tea and cinchona labourers and their ancestral land, and also has deprived them of basic facilities. He stated that the New Codes will ensure that no worker is paid below the National floor wage, and even the West Bengal Government will have to mandatorily implement it. 

 

The Union Minister is on a two-day visit to North Bengal.