All people are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Ninety Five percent of the people in this world have to slog to make both ends meet or at least to have a respectable life style. A few are lucky to get govt. jobs where as others who are working in Industries are often the victims of maltreatment, victims of shifts lives, victims of so many ailments because of their exposure to various types of metallic dust, smoke, fumes, chemicals etc. which are inevitable in industries.
The saddest part is there is no “Massiha” who can understand the plight of Industrial workers and stand strongly like a rock for the cause of Industrial/private /contract workers.
Politicians make tall claims at the time of elections and make all sorts of promises to woo his/her voters, and once the elections are over the promises are forgotten and the election manifesto is thrown to dustbin.
Industrial/private workers/Contract workers are not asking for moon but they expect what is due to them. Neither the politicians nor the Government agencies which are supposed to look into the welfare of the Industrial/private workers look the other way when you approach them with your complaints. If they are looking for quick justice, it is deliberately delayed thus rubbing salt into their wounds.
There are dismissal cases pending in the labour Court for last 15-20 years in Goa. There are cases pending regarding non-signing of settlement. We say justice delayed is justice denied. The above are clear cases of justice being denied. In this long process of getting justice workers die during the pendency of the cases thus leaving a blot on their career. Even the court gives verdict in their favour and are asked to be reinstated, but unfortunately there are either a very few years left for them to serve or their retirement age is already reached.
Any government that comes to power says that we will see that the maximum sons of the soil are employed, Goans interest will be protected but the fact is most of the Goans are suffering in Industries as all are not lucky enough to get government jobs.
But the minimum that is expected from the government is they should see that a least one person from a family gets a government job. It is surprising that sometimes you see that all the members of a particular family are in government service whereas in case of others all are private or industrial workers, as our government is not serious to implement the bill that was discussed some years back i.e. (one job in a family).
According to a rough census there are over 2,00,000 factory/private/contract workers in Goa working in different units and out of them 75% are working for a meager salary, 50% of them are not having good working conditions as either the surrounding temperature is very high, there is dust pollution or chemical fumes pollution, working hours are lengthy etc. and there is always a sword of Damocles hanging on their heads as far as their job is concerned.
We can say that there are on an average about 5000 workers or votes in each constituency which further implies that these 5000 workers can influence one or two votes each at home (wife, father, mother, brother sister etc.) taking the total number to about 12,000 votes in each constituency .
If we all can come together for our own sake there is no stone that we can leave unturned. But we all should be dedicated and honest in our approach. The movement should be very peaceful. The time has come for us to get united politically because our politicians understand only the language of politics.
In order to bring pressure to streamline the industrial system we should approach in large number to the local MLA and ask him/her to look very seriously into the matters pertaining to salary, leave, safety, work conditions settlement issue etc of industrial workers / private workers because the constitution is in faovur of industrial & private worker but the implementation is denied by concerned government concern authority.
The worst part is these workers don’t know each other as they are scattered. When they suffer, they suffer alone thinking that this is their destiny.
Remember we don’t get anything without fighting. By fighting I don’t really mean that we all have to come on the roads and resort to Rasta Roko or pelting the buses or damaging the public and private property but there should be a silent and strong undercurrent against the ruling govt. and the existing MLA and they should be made aware about this undercurrent (ruling or opposition).
All the 40 MLAs should come under pressure to improve the working condition of industrial workers for which we all should come together. Unless we do that our politicians and our industrial bosses will take us for granted.
In reality capital needs labour and labour needs Capital. Capital and labour are two sides of the same coin. Therefore they have to look into our salary, leave, holidays, loan facility, safe working condition, etc. because we also belong to this state and are also sons of the soil. The income tax payers amongst us also contribute to the government coffers.
