Safety of employees at stake, PSPCL puts blame on outsourced companies

Mahesh Sharma

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Malerkotla, July 13

Regular and outsourced technical employees of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) have raised their voice against the corporation, which is trying to wash its hands of any responsibility in accident cases instead of taking proactive measures to prevent accidents and to supply safety gadgets.

Passing the buck

• PSPCL says the outsourced company responsible for supplying safety gadgets and sensitising their staff about uses of these gadgets
• Employees risking their lives being paid Rs 12,500 per month as wages and Rs 2,000 deducted every alternate month as fuel expenses

At contractor’s mercy

Most of the families of six employees who died in the region recently were left at the mercy of the outsourced company. Sukhcharan Jit Sharma, Retirees’ Union president

While the permanent employees of the PSPCL working on sites are being held responsible for any kind of mishap involving hired temporary workers, outsourced employees are being forced to submit a written undertaking accepting responsibility for any loss in case of accident.

The office-bearers and activists of the POWERCOM Theka Mulazim Union and the PSPCL Employees’ Union have urged the authorities to ensure the safety of the technical staff of all cadres and fix the responsibility of erring personnel in cases of incidents that have claimed the lives of regular and outsourced employees.

Claiming that adequate preventive measures were taken under the supervision of designated officers of the PSPCL during all maintenance or repair jobs, Malerkotla Executive Engineer Harwinder Singh Dhiman argued that the outsourced company was responsible for supplying safety gadgets and sensitising their staff about the uses of these gadgets before taking up any job work.

Former president of POWERCOM Theka Mulazim Union Dinesh Kumar Verma alleged that several lives had been lost during electrocution mishaps in which the victims had been forced to work under stress and accidents had taken place despite all proactive measures being taken.

“Though our men had been taking every precaution, some of them lost their lives for no fault of theirs,” said Verma, alleging that all employees were not provided safety gadgets by the company. Employees risking their lives were being paid Rs 12,500 per month as wages and Rs 2,000 were deducted every alternate month as fuel expenses for undertaking work, regretted Verma.

Jaswinder Singh, general secretary of the state body of the PSPCL Employees’ Union, lamented that the government’s policy or privatisation was the root cause behind the situation wherein regular and outsourced employees were in for a double whammy.

“On the one hand, our men, regular or outsourced, are losing lives for no fault of theirs, and on the other hand, they (employees) are being booked for allegedly causing unfortunate deaths of common people,” said Singh, claiming that the number of regular employees of the PSPCL had reduced to a mere 28,000 from the earlier strength of 1.35 lakh.

Sukhcharan Jit Sharma, president, Retirees’ Union, regretted that the government had failed to provide ideal working conditions to the regular and outsourced technical staff, who had been suffering due to the apathy of senior functionaries in the corporation towards the safety of employees.

“At least six employees rectifying faults during peak load hours have lost their lives in the region recently. Most of them, being outsourced employees, were not governed by the rules and regulations of the corporation, thus leaving their families at the mercy of the outsourcing company,” said Sharma.

Ashu Bains, president, Technical Services Union Ahmedgarh, alleged that authorities had failed to make the contractors provide adequate safety gadgets for the protection of outsourced employees who had been working overtime to minimise inconvenience to consumers during peak season.