CHALLENGES OF LABOUR RELATIONS IN ASSAM'S TEA PLANTATIONS: THE CASE OF JORHAT

There is no shadow of doubt about the pivotal role played by Labour Relation practices in bringing about a sense of contentment and pleasure among the workers of an industry. Therefore, an attempt has been made to study the existing Labour Relation Practices in tea industry of Assam. Tea industry is the most important industry in the state of Assam and it is labour intensive. Samples have been drawn from three tea estates belonging to three different types of organizations namely public, private and government owned. Opinions are sought from the selected samples on important parameters of Labour Relation such as personal policies and practices, wages and salaries, working conditions, union activities, participative schemes, redressal of grievances etc. It was found that though the responses of the workers vary from one tea estates to another. They reflected a strong degree of dissatisfaction on different parameters associated with the practices of labour relation. Therefore, it will not be wrong to opine that tea industry of Assam has long been neglecting the human aspect of the organizations. An attempts has been undertaken to highlights the strong areas where the tea estates would be advised to capitalize on; and to identify problem areas and formulate suitable recommendations to improve the pattern of labour relations in tea estates of Assam