PANAJI
Employees working with the Public Works Department (PWD) across the state have decided to begin their indefinite protest by halting work, and instead sitting outside their respective offices.
Contract workers employed by contractors associated with the PWD have asked to be absorbed into the PWD Labour Supply Society, reasoning that this is a better option than their current fragile working conditions.
Their decision comes after the workers had served a three-day notice to the State government as well as local panchayats of halting the work undertaken by sweepers and sewerage cleaners, and instead sitting outside their respective departments across the State.
Announcing the decision to go ahead with the protest, representative of the PWD contract labour workers union, Swati Kerkar, said that the workers had received support from most MLAs and village panchayats in their demand to be absorbed into the Society.
“After serving the three-day notice period, we have still not received any response from them, which is why we are going ahead with our decision to protest. All the workers will stop their work and sit outside their respective offices as per the plan,” she said.
The over 1,230 workers want to be part of the Society for job security. Currently, workers say their salaries are delayed for months, and don't receive any leaves.
“We receive between four and five thousand rupees a month. Our Provident Funds are also difficult to get since our contractors sometimes make it difficult to avail of it. Leaves are also denied to us,” said one PWD worker.
The Society, in contrast to the contract workers, receives twice the salary and are bound by rules and regulations that have to be followed. “The workers see this as a sense of job security because right now their contractors are able to fire them without so much as a warning,” said Kerkar.
In the long run too, like Goa Human Resources Corporation (GHRC), workers believe any change in the government will not lead to any difference in their jobs and working conditions.
However, while the contract workers see the Society as their saving grace, those in the Society have claimed that the department has engaged in backdoor recruitments despite spending over 18 years with the same department.
