PANAJI
Protesting the government’s policies and demanding equal pay for equal work, trade union leader Christopher Fonseca on Tuesday said that the government has to look after its citizens and ensure that all workers get paid on time with a minimum wage of at least Rs 20,000 a month.
“The government must ensure that all workers get paid on time. If necessary, the government needs to have a fund from which it pays all workers who have not been paid by their employers by the 7th of each month,” he said, pointing out that many workers in the state had not been paid for months on end, and the government was apathetic to their plight.
“The government can have a special salary fund from where it can pay workers who have not been paid,” said Fonseca.
He further said that anyone in employment for over three years needed to be made permanent staff of the company and could not be given annual contracts for over 20 or 30 years. Fonseca also said that the government could easily help out the lakhs of people who had been affected by mining by paying them a stipend of around Rs 25,000 per month. “From where will this money come? The mining industry has contributed in crores to the exchequer every year when mining was on. The government can use this money to tide over those affected till mining resumes,” said Fonseca.
Fonseca was addressing the over 500 strong crowd at Azad Maidan, where they had gathered in protest as part of the nation-wide strike on January 8 and 9 to protest government’s policies.
Coming together The Goa Convention of Workers (GCW), an umbrella organisation of around a dozen trade unions on Tuesday protested peacefully in a morcha organised from the Kadamba bus stand in Panaji to the Azad Maidan, where they held a protest meet for around an hour.
Some of the trade unions that joined in were the Private Bus Owners Association, the Goa Bank Employees Association, the Leela Goa Union, the Sesa Mining Workers Union, the General Insurance Employees Association, the North Goa Taxi Owners Association, the All Goa Auto Rickshaw Action Committee and the Goa Trade Union Confederation.
Several other trade union leaders also spoke on different demands of workers, while slamming the government. A memorandum containing the entire list of demands and signed by Adv Suhas Naik, the convenor of the GCW, was submitted to the Chief Minister and Prime Minister.
