The strike launched by manpower agency workers and daily wage workers of the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) fizzled out on Saturday without achieving anything. The striking workers, who were off work for 41 days with their main demands that the manpower agency workers be converted into contract workers and wage enhancement be given to daily wage workers, buckled under pressure brought in by the management and joined duty without insisting on fulfilment of any of their demands.
Striking workers of the APTDC returned to work only in Vijayawada and Tirupati while their counterparts across the State are continuing their agitation.
The protest in fact has done more harm to the workers than good with the peeved management declaring that it would take back only workers who are qualified for their respective jobs. “The workers have called off the strike and agreed to join duties without fulfilment of their demands. The management says it does not have the financial capacity to pay more to workers at this point. We insisted that the officials, at the least, constitute a committee to look into the grievances of the striking workers and do the needful,” Andhra Pradesh Public Sector Employees Federation Chairman M. Janardhan Reddy told The Hindu on Saturday.“The management has taken 10 days to get back to us with a condition that it would reinstate only ‘eligible’ workers. It is now also talking of a separate ‘policy decision’ for daily wage workers.” With this, the fate of the daily wage employees hangs in the balance.
“The Chief Secretary, Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Chandana Khan, did not spell out her stand on the issue,” he said. The Tourism Corporation’s Executive Director, Hotels, Sumit Sen, visited the city on Saturday apparently to oversee smooth process of the workers taking back their places.
The ‘ineligible’ among the manpower resource workers have been asked to join only after securing relevant qualification certificates. “They are being treated in an unfair manner. There are several ‘ineligible’ employees among the non-striking workers also. We have approached the PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and Tourism Minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar with a plea to prevent the workers’ ‘victimisation’ by the management,” he said.
