Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman M. Kodandaram has demanded that the Government implement the recommendations made by the high-power committee on hike in salaries of the contract workers employed in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).
Though the high-power panel had recommended pay hike for the workers, the government was yet to implement all the recommendations made by the panel, especially those pertaining to hike in the salaries.
“Though orders are being issued from time to time, the coal mine contractor workers did not get the full benefit of the recommendations made by the committee. The contract workers in coal mines remain unorganised, by and large,” he said.
Prof. Kodandaram was addressing a meeting organised by the Singareni Collieries Contract Workers Union here on Sunday. He expressed concern that despite prolonged struggles by the workers, safeguards in terms of job security, education and health related issues remained a distant dream for them. The TJAC was committed to the welfare of the workers and would standby them in times of crisis, he said.
In spite of the struggles by the working class, the number of workers in SCCL was brought down to 65,000 from 1.2 lakh in the united State thanks to the liberalisation policies. Works in major sectors like transportation and over burden removal had been outsourced, increasing the number of contract workers employed by the coal mining major. But the Government should ensure that no undue favours were granted to the contractors and private entities at the expense of the working class and workers were treated on a par with the private entities.
He lamented that the costs of education and healthcare had increased multi-fold over the years but there was no commensurate hike in the wages being paid to workers. As a result, workers were facing severe hardship for ensuring a decent living for their families. He suggested that the government take steps to provide education to children of workers by setting up institutions on the lines of residential schools as also hospitals for providing healthcare without burdening the working class.
IFTU national president S. Venkateswarlu demanded that the government implement the recommendations of the committee in toto.
The working class was contemplating to raise the issues at the national-level and had accordingly planned to organise ‘Chalo Parliament’ on August 1 where in workers would go to New Delhi and seek implementation of their long pending demands.
