Gate rallies held at all Verka milk plants, state-level protest slated for August 18 at 4 major plants

Gate rallies were held at all Verka milk plants on Thursday to protest the alleged “negligent policies” of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab. Employees accused the government of ignoring their legitimate demands.

Verka Dairy Contract Workers’ Union state president Pavandeep Singh said that the AAP government, which came to power promising to regularise outsourced and in-house contractual employees, was now leaving employees in the lurch just like the previous governments.

Rupinder Singh, president of the Verka Dairy Contract Workers’ Union, Chandigarh, said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had said in the Assembly that outsourced employees were being exploited by contractors and companies. Yet, even after the completion of three years in office, the government has failed to implement any concrete policy to regularise them. Employees are demanding that their wages be fixed and increased according to the 1948 formula."

The Milkfed chairman has even refused to hold a meeting on the issue.

Pavandeep Singh further informed that, as part of the agitation, effigies of the Punjab Government would be burnt at all plants on August 13. This would be followed by a state-level protest on August 18 in front of the Verka plants in Amritsar, Mohali, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar, in which employees from all plants would participate.