Assam raised the minimum daily wage for tea garden workers by Rs 30 from April 1, taking a day's plucking in the Brahmaputra valley to Rs 280 and in the Barak valley to Rs 258, according to the state's labour department notification reported by Business Standard and The Sentinel.

The Brahmaputra figure is up from Rs 250 and the Barak figure up from Rs 228. The Department of Labour Welfare notified the rise on March 7, on a recommendation the Minimum Wages Advisory Board made February 26, and it covers the large estates and the small gardens in both valleys, reaching more than seven lakh workers, the government said.

The state called the figure interim. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said wages would be revised again as the central government's new labour codes take effect, and that stakeholders would "probably have to sit again in the next six months," after which the daily wage was likely to cross Rs 300, according to Business Standard. In the Brahmaputra valley the wage has risen from Rs 197 before 2021, a gain of more than 40% over five years.

Adivasi worker bodies called the rise inadequate. The All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam, which demanded Rs 551 a day, said the promise to align the wage with the new labour codes was "nothing but a misleading and hollow assurance," its president Rejan Horo said, according to The Assam Tribune. The Adivasi Youth-Students' Association of Assam, which sought at least Rs 500, said the revision was "contrary to the spirit and objective of the law," its president Nipen Munda said.

What a worker takes home is a separate figure from the notified floor. Pay is tied to a daily plucking target, around 24 kilograms of leaf at the height of the season, and falling short brings deductions, so take-home pay can drop below the notified wage. Assam grows more than half of India's tea, and its gardens support some 6.84 lakh workers, EastMojo reported. For context on the settlement, the state's notified unskilled wage outside the gardens is Rs 345 a day, and tea plucking pays Rs 475 in Tamil Nadu and Rs 546 in Kerala, according to the reports. Labour is the single largest cost in an Assam garden's production, and the wage floor sets that cost for the season.

Sources: Business Standard, Hike in Assam tea garden workers' daily wage by Rs 30 from Apr 1; The Sentinel, Assam Tea Garden Workers to Get Rs 280 Daily Wage in Brahmaputra Valley From April 1; Outlook Business, Hike in Assam Tea Garden Workers' Daily Wage by Rs 30 From Apr 1; The Assam Tribune, Tea garden bodies slam Assam govt's Rs 30 daily wage hike as inadequate; EastMojo, Assam's tea industry at a crossroads: why wages deserve centre stage.