Siliguri, Sept. 4: Tata Tea’s Damdim estate was locked out this morning after members of the management had allegedly been held hostage yesterday.

The workers denied the charge and blamed new manager Uday Bhanu Das for the crisis.

The garden was once con- sidered a “model tea estate” in the Dooars for its worker-management relations.

The local CPM zonal committee secretary, Chanu Dey, admitted that the its track record in payment of wages, ration and other benefits had been impeccable.

“But Das was always experimenting, he was changing everything,” Dey said.

Das had switched the weekly holiday from Sunday to Monday. “Pluckers were being brought to the factory and workers sent to pluck tealeaves. If a worker protested, the person was not assigned any work for 10 days,” Dey added.

The lockout comes two months after Union minister Jairam Ramesh appealed to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to rein in trade union leaders who were, in many cases, to blame for the crisis in the tea industry. The Centre also issued an ultimatum to owners of the closed gardens — start running again or face acquisition.

The unions were united in slamming the manager today. “He made us work on August 15,” complained Sadhan Bose of the Intuc-affiliated union.

“Some workers had demonstrated yesterday. But most of the issues were sorted out by night,” he claimed.

The Dooars branch of the Indian Tea Association, however, said the manager and his men had been confined to a room for hours.

No Tata official was available for comment. Jalpaiguri deputy labour commissioner Kallol Dutta said: “Company representatives have promised to settle the dispute mutually.”