Longview tea estate in Darjeeling to reopen on Wednesday

KOLKATA: Longview Tea Garden in West Bengal's Darjeeling district will resume its operations from Wednesday after the management of the estate has agreed to clear dues of its workers, an official said.

The management of the garden, which employs around 1,200 workers, had declared suspension of work at the estate on August 21 over some labour-related issues, he said.

Additional labour commissioner of north Bengal Md Rizwan said a tripartite meeting among the representatives of the management, members of three trade unions and the government officials was held on Monday to resolve the issues.

"The garden will reopen from tomorrow and the management has agreed to pay all the dues of the workers, which include bonus for last fiscal, salaries and wages of the employees and workers amounting to around Rs 80 lakh," he said.

The dues will have to be paid by the management by October 7, he said, adding that Longview is the largest tea estate in the hills in terms of area and number of employees. The tea estate management could not be reached for comments.