PANAJI
Representatives of the Drishti Lifesaving Guards Workers’ Union along with key leaders of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) met newly-appointed Labour Commissioner Arun Desai on Tuesday requesting him to intervene to resolve their long-pending issues.
The Labour Commissioner assured that he would consult with the advisor to the government on labour issues and study the matter before taking it up with the relevant higher authorities. He said that he could approach the Chief Minister, if he feels the need for it.
AITUC general secretary Christopher Fonseca updated the Labour Commissioner with issues of the 17 victimised lifeguards, whose services were arbitrarily terminated in 2014 by the Drishti management.
Services of 17 lifeguards were terminated by Drishti 'on grounds of indiscipline' as alleged by the management.
“Tourism Minister and Labour Minister are both in agreement with us. When we met Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on January 2, he admitted that the responsibility of the strike was on the government. He assured us that 17 posts could be created to reinstate these lifeguards,” Fonseca said.
Referring to the written commitment dated November 21, 2014 signed by the Labour Minister, Tourism Minister and other officials of the government along with AITUC and representatives of Drishti lifeguards, Fonseca said, “It is the non-intervention of the Labour Department in securing the implementation of the settlement that has forced us to agitate.”
He pointed out that the government machinery was involved in arriving at the settlement in 2014, following which the lifeguards had withdrawn their previous agitation. “Chief Minister Parsekar was involved, and Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was consulted on numerous occasions,” he said.
Commenting on the stand of Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd, Fonseca stressed, “Even if Drishti management gets on board, they are not in the position to resolve the lifeguards’ issues. In fact, Drishti management is correct in stating that we have not signed any agreement with them. The State government is the principle employer.”
The prominent issues of the lifeguards include hike of monthly salary to Rs 21,000, increasing the age of retirement from 45 to 50 years, regularisation and departmentalisation of services and creation of alternate employment after retirement.
