Sthrigdhara Naik
ow payment and non regularization has made survival extremely difficult for contractual workers (CWs) engaged by the State government.
Situation is grimmer for people like Mahadev Parab, a former patient care attendant at the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB), who was retrenched from work after serving for almost a decade.
“We have families to look after. We have to clear our home loans, pay for children’s education. Most of us have attained the age of 45. Which private firm is going to employ us at this stage? How are we expected to survive without a concrete source of income in this era of rising inflation? We plead to the government to regularise us in service or at least re-employ us on contract basis,” cried Parab, who along with 27 of his colleagues were terminated from work.
“This is as good as indirectly forcing the contract workers to commit suicide,” alleged General Secretary of Electricity Employees Union (EEU) Raju Mangueshkar.
“A lot of problems are being faced by those working on temporary work order. Their employment can abruptly be brought to an end once the work is over,” lamented Mangueshkar.
Appealing to the government for regularising these CWs, Mangueshkar informed that more than 13,000 of them exist in various government departments. Informing further he said, around 4000 CWs are employed in the Public Works Department (PWD) while around 1000 each in Health,Goa Education Department (GED) and Goa Electricity Department. Around 300 CWs are engaged with Bharat Sanchaar Naigam Limited (BSNL), while more than 400 workers are working in various government corporations.
“To sum up the count, more than 13,000 workers are working on contract basis in various government departments and corporations. On an average at least 200 CWs exist in each of the 30 government departments of Goa working for more than 5 years”, informed Mangueshkar.
“There is a provision to regularise these contractual workers after five years of completion in service. But the government doesn’t seem to be interested in doing that,” he added.
“When it comes to delivering the output at workplace, we put equal efforts as that of permanent staff. Despite working at our fullest efficiency, the CWs are deprived of the benefits which are enjoyed by the permanent employees of the department,” lamented Sudip Pai, a CW working as a pump operator at a sewage treatment plant of PWD since last 25 years.
Commenting on the inability of Goa government to solve their long pending issues, Pai said they are not against anyone but believe they deserve equal wages for equal work.
Pai informed that he along with 1049 PWD workers have been fighting for their right in the Bombay High Court at Goa since 2003, eagerly waiting for the hearing in the hope of justice.
“Out of 1950 PWD contract workers who were recruited in 2003, around 500 left the job due to frustration We under the various banners of PWD Labour Union, submitted number of memorandums, staged multiple protests across Goa demanding job regularisation. Successive governments so far have given only fake assurances,” alleged Pai.
“Tired with these fake assurances, in 2016 we approached the Bombay High Court at Goa to seek justice,” he informed.
He said, “Since we are working with dedication for more than 20 years. Government could have easily regularised us. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t seem to have any such intention. Every elected representative works towards achieving political benefits. None of them think about the people on humanitarian grounds,” said Pai.
“To add salt to our wounds, our monthly salary gets delayed. We have to forward written queries to the office every time to make them release our payment. Moreover, they have even have messed up with the designation of employees,” said Pai.
Giving an example he said, “While the plumbers are wrongly designated as meter reader, labour is mentioned as plumber. A meter reader though is asked to work as per his original designation, is paid less as considering the wrongly designated pay scale.”
“Sanitation workers engaged in cleaning sewers are not provided with proper safety equipments against toxic gases and insects. We have to literally beg for our safety allowance,” he added.
Ranjeeta Naik who was working as a Technical Assistant (TA) of Information Technology at PWD informed that total 27 TA vacancies were filled on contract basis in 2013 assuring permanency in service.“We were terminated from the service after working here for almost nine years,” she lamented.
“Sad part is, now the Lower Division Clerks (LDC) are trained by the PWD department to carry out TA’s work. If there was requirement of TA staff in the department then why weren’t we regularised or why wasn’t our contract renewed? Training LDC staff and asking them to carry out the TA’s work is totally insane,” she added.
Gangaram Lambor, a contract worker informed that including him a total of 54 Physical Education, Art Education and Work Education CWs under the banner of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) had protested demanding service regularisation.
“If Delhi, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam government can regularise the contract staff of SSA then why can’t Goa government?” questioned Lambor.
President of Goa Union of Anganwadi Workers, Devyani Tamse said the Anganwadi workers have temporarily withdrawn the protest after Goa government agreed to fulfil their three (pension scheme, nominee and retirement benefit) out of 11 demands. “We are more than 1200 in total and we have suspended the agitation only for time being”, she added.
A contract BSNL worker Yashwant Malik said he along with 400 workers are working under BSNL on contractual basis since last 28 years. We have been demanding job regularisation since last many years. Lamenting he said, “The contractors never pay our salaries on time. This brings us a starvation like situation”.
