The contract workers of AP EPDCL, who have been on a relay hunger strike for the last 10 days, took out a rally from the Gandhi statue near GVMC to the EPDCL Corporate Office at Seethammadhara on Wednesday demanding regularisation of their services.
The police foiled their protest by taking CITU and AITUC leaders like Padala Ramana and RKSV Kumar into preventive custody. The workers, however, took out the rally and raised slogans denouncing the ‘vindictive attitude’ of the Chandrababu Naidu government in failing to concede their demands.
The contract workers demanded honouring the Supreme Court order on ‘equal pay for equal work’ and payment of wages on par with regular staff. The other demands include payment of ex gratia to workers, who die while on duty, and provision of a job to a dependent and abolition of piece-rate system for electricity workers.
CPI(M) State secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao and CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy expressed solidarity with the striking contract workers and warned that the TDP government would be taught a lesson by the electricity employees, if it failed to implement their demands.
