Unpaid dues to tea labourers: SC orders ATCL chairman to submit list of properties the company owns

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 14, 2024

The Supreme Court has directed the chairman of the state-run Assam Tea Corporation Limited (ATCL) to provide a detailed list of all movable and immovable assets owned by the corporation.

This directive follows the Assam government’s statement that it is no longer in a position to fund the financially struggling ATCL, which operates 14 tea estates.

During the proceedings, a bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih reviewed the submission made by Assam Chief Secretary Ravi Kota. Kota informed the court that despite the state government’s best efforts to support ATCL, they have been unable to resolve the corporation’s ongoing financial troubles.

The Chief Secretary also shared that the Assam cabinet has deliberated on ATCL’s situation and concluded that additional funding for the loss-making enterprise would not be feasible.

The SC bench observed that if the Assam government is unwilling to provide additional funding, it may consider ordering the sale of ATCL’s 14 tea gardens to settle the dues owed to its employees, including outstanding provident fund payments.

The bench made this remark while hearing a contempt petition related to non-payment of wages and benefits for workers at ATCL’s tea estates.

The contempt petition, filed by the International Union of Food and Agriculture Workers, stems from a 2006 case aimed at securing dues and pensionary benefits for ATCL employees. During the hearing, the bench asked ATCL about its plan to pay the workers’ dues, noting that the corporation did not dispute its liability to pay.

The court’s insistence on listing ATCL’s assets and its mention of potentially directing asset sales highlights the urgency of finding a solution to meet employee obligations, given ATCL’s ongoing financial crisis and lack of state support.

Earlier on October 21, the SC bench, in summoning Assam Chief Secretary, emphasized that the Assam government must seriously address why neither the state nor ATCL has made genuine efforts to pay the long-overdue dues of tea estate workers.

The issue of unpaid dues has a lengthy history. In 2010, the Supreme Court directed the payment of these dues, but non-compliance led to a contempt petition being filed in 2012. In 2020, a committee appointed by the Supreme Court calculated that ATCL owed around ₹414.73 crore in unpaid wages and approximately ₹230 crore in unpaid provident funds. In a more recent ruling on February 7, 2023, the court ordered the payment of around ₹650 crore to 28,556 workers across Assam’s 25 tea estates, including 15 ATCL-owned estates, with the rest being private estates.

Given the Assam government’s reluctance to infuse more funds into ATCL, the court is now contemplating a directive to sell ATCL’s tea gardens to fulfill these long-pending obligations to its employees.