Employees demand regularisation of jobs

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 10

Members of the Theka Mulazam Sanghrash Morcha, Punjab, staged a protest in front of the District Administrative Complex and demanded fulfilment of their demands on Monday.

Scores of protesters gathered outside the mini-secretariat complex and raised slogans against the state government and district administration for not regularising the jobs of contractual employees who have been rendering services in government departments for the past many years.

Contractual employees from various departments, including education, water supply, Powercom, MGNREGA, transport, health, PWD and district administration among others participated in the protest.

The protesters demanded that the government must stop privatising departments and start recruiting employees on a permanent basis by providing them all benefits of a regular government employee.

Moreover, the employees from government departments must be reinstated on immediate basis, they added.

Varinder Singh, an executive member of the union, said, “Following protests by union members, the state government had introduced the Punjab Ad hoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Act, 2016. But the state government did not implement the Act. If the government had implemented it, the services of outsourced and contractual employees would have been regularised with all benefits. Instead of implementing the Act, the government started privatising various departments.”

“We are holding protests to get the Act implemented. We will hold marches in front of the DC offices in the state from December 10 to 21. Also, the representatives from different unions will reach the Chief Minister’s residence in Chandigarh to submit a memorandum of demands on December 12,” he added.

The protesters alleged that the ‘anti-employee’ policies of the state government would not be tolerated anymore now.

“On the one hand, the government is organising employment fairs to provide jobs to candidates in private firms, and on the other, it is snatching jobs from the government employees. We vehemently criticise this indifferent attitude adopted by the government. Salaries of government employees are reduced in the garb of providing them regular jobs. It is such steps that are forcing us to hold protest,” he said.