“The contract-basis employees received a raise in September 2013 and were promised a salary of Rs 4,950 each. But between December 2014 and January 2015, as many as 400 employees, who had been working for almost a decade, were laid off. None of us have received the arrears and even the Provident Fund amounts due to us,” Wagurmekar
THE GOAN Network
PANAJI
A group of 40-odd members of the Security Guards Employees’ Union (SGEU) gheraoed the authorities of the Goa Recruitment and Employment Society (GRES) at its office in Shramashakti Bhavan, Patto on Tuesday, over the issue of payment of arrears to the security and housekeeping employees. The payment of arrears has been pending since September 2013.
General Secretary of SGEU, Mahendra Wagurmekar informed that arrears of Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000 are due to each of the 450-500 persons employed as security and housekeeping staff in the departments of health, irrigation and education.
“The contract-basis employees received a raise in September 2013 and were promised a salary of Rs 4,950 each. But between December 2014 and January 2015, as many as 400 employees, who had been working for almost a decade, were laid off. None of us have received the arrears and even the Provident Fund amounts due to us,” Wagurmekar stated and criticised GRES authorities for asking the employees to pursue the matter with their departments based on the details of the letters sent by GRES.
New workers have since been appointed to the posts vacated by these 400 employees.
In December 2014, members of the SGEU met Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and GRES Chairman Subhash Salkar and were assured that the arrears would be disbursed within a month.
In an attempt to calm the crowd, KG Naik, the administrative accounts officer at GRES office, explained that GRES had written to the concerned departments immediately after receiving the government circular announcing the wage enhancement of contract security and housekeeping staff. “We are awaiting the written approvals from each of the departments to incorporate the revised wages effective from September 2013. Following this, a revised arrear bill needs to be sent to the concerneddepartments. It is only on completion of this procedure that the funds for thearrears can be disbursed,” Naik clarified.
He assured that GRES office will make the payment as and when the funds are released from each department and said, “Arrears will be disbursed within 15 days of receiving the approval of the concerned department.”
After hinting that the departments, especially health, were facing scarcity of funds, Naik insisted that the funds to clear the arrears of almost 20% of the affected former employees have already been received and that it would take a minimum of one and half month to disburse these. However, members of the SGEU suspect that funds of over Rs two crore, which have been received by GRES, are being kept idle by the Society while it continues to draw interest on the amount.
SGEU resolved to take up the issue with GRES Chairman Salkar and sought an appointment for this purpose on Friday.
