Members of the Tamil Nadu Nutritious Meal Employees Association (TNNMEA) were arrested after staging a protest and blocking roads near the Collectorate premises here on Friday demanding wage regularisation and an increase in their pension.
District secretary A. Solaiyan said that after putting in more than 30 years of service, retired noon meal workers were only entitled to a pension of Rs.1,000 which they demanded to be raised to Rs.3,500.
“We are being paid only a meagre Rs.2,500 per month as basic pay. There are also over 40,000 vacancies of noon meal workers across the State and we have urged the government to fill those positions at the earliest,” he said.
As many as 424 noon meal workers were arrested for protesting and picketing the roads near the Collectorate and were released after 6 p.m.
