MARGAO: Even as some workers staged a dharna outside the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Divisional Office at Margao protesting against non-payment of wages for the last six months, District General Manager B K Mungase said they were not BSNL employees but people employed by a party that has taken the contract with BSNL.
The workers led by trade unionists Raju Mangueshkar and Prasana Uttagi were protesting that the contract workers have not been paid their wages for the last six months and that at all India level, they are also demanding regularisation of services.
In Goa, they said, there are around 600 contract labourers who have been working for many years and one Avita Naik who has been working in the department for 9 years has been asked not to report for work only because she had participated in a protest march earlier.
However, the District General Manager said that the protesting workers were employees of a firm that has been given the contract by BSNL and not employed by BSNL. He however admitted that due to the financial crisis that BSNL facing, they did not pay the previous contractor his fees for some time due to which probably the staff wages have not been paid.
