Calling upon the government to solve their salary issue on humanitarian grounds, the Balrath Employees Association has demanded that the services of its workers be regularised.
Rajendra Gaude, Vice President of Balrath Employees Union said, “Government should solve our salary issue on humanitarian grounds. We have a family and it is not possible to feed and provide education to children with this meagre salary. Our main demand is that Government should regularise our services. The drivers’ salary be hiked to Rs 21000 while that of attendants to Rs 16,000. We also demand salaries for twelve months as against 10 months due to which our family suffers.”
“We also demand compensation to the families of three employees, who met in fatal accidents including an attendant and two drivers and that the government comes out with an insurance cover to Balrath employees as security to their families. We also demand that the salary be credited into the bank account as private managements are not paying full salaries when providing cash,” Gaude added.
The association informed that at present the Balrath employees including drivers and attendants across Goa are earning meagre salaries of Rs 5,000 for attendants and Rs 10,000 for drivers for the last eight years.
It claimed that these employees work from morning 6.30 am to 3.30 pm and receive salaries for only ten months. They and their families are forced to suffer for two months without salary. They further claimed that after eight years they received a meagre hike in salary of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 respectively for attendant and drivers which is great injustice.
They further complained that their dreams were shattered in 2016 when the then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that they had been working only for two hours and couldn’t derive benefit and salaries like the staff employed in schools with government aid. Further in 2017, they said that they were pained to hear Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar stating that they work for only for four hours.
“Both the then and current Chief Minister underestimated our work, and tried to convince that we do not deserve high salaries and that our services should not be regularised,” Association general secretary, Shivkumar Naik said.
“We are working from 6.30 am to 3.30 pm. Can a family survive with Rs 5,000 salary for attendant and 10000 for drivers and that too without a hike for the past eight years,” Naik asked.
When asked about woes of employees, Swati Kerkar, who is leading the agitation, slammed both former and latter CMs and termed their claims as false.
Kerkar said, “Parsekar claimed that the employees work for for only two hours, while now the current Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar contradicts him (Parsekar) by stating that these workers work for four hours. Who is true? The government should conduct a survey of their work and frame a policy to regularise their services.”
“Government had fixed a minimum salary of Rs 317 per day for industrial workers and if it is calculated it comes to over Rs 9,500 a month then why is it paying a meagre salary of Rs 5,000 to Balrath Employees. Since Balarath employees provide honest and safe journey to students from home to school and back their services need to be regularised,” said Shiv Sena leader Ganasham Naik.
