Contractual power employees take out protest march

Powercom and Transco Contractual Employees Union, Punjab, held a state-level protest in the city on Tuesday. Protesting employees started their protest march near Verka milk booth and reached the office-cum-residence of Punjab Industries and Power Minister Sanjeev Arora.

The employees in a big number raised slogans against the state government for its lackadaisical approach. They said they were continuously struggling to get their rightful and legitimate demands fulfilled and alleged exploitation at the hands of the contractor.

A series of meetings was also being held during the struggle.

State president Balihar Singh, state general secretary Rajesh Kumar Maur and state press secretary Inderpreet Singh said the workers had been toiling hard in the Electricity Department but it had failed to regularised them so far. The present state government had promised to cancel the privatisation policy and make all outsourced contract workers permanent. But despite passage of over three years, no worker had been made regular. Workers were losing their precious lives due to electrocution and the union was continuously demanding that the privatisation policy be cancelled and all workers be directly included in the department, including implementing a minimum living wage and guaranteeing permanent jobs and pensions for accident victims and resolving demands listed in the demand letter.

Several meetings were held with the Chief Minister, Finance Minister and the Power Minister and government representatives, during which the authorities concerned passed the agenda to include the workers directly in the department and sent it to the state government but it was not implementing the agenda, due to which there was a huge resentment among the contract workers, they said.