Cleaning workers at Calicut International Airport, Karipur, will go on strike from Monday pressing for various demands, including an increase in wages and better work conditions.
Eighty-odd cleaning workers supplied by Chennai-based Upshot agencies served a strike notice to the airport director recently, listing their woes and the neglect of the authorities towards them. Apart from a consolidated pay of Rs.20,000 a month, the cleaning staff demanded that they be given washing allowance, weekly off, protective gears like safety shoes, gloves and mask, and night duty allowance for women. They said that each cleaning worker was being given Rs.258 a day after their ESI and PF deductions. They said their counterparts in other airports were getting better wages.
“In spite of our persistent demands, we are not getting national holiday allowance, leave allowance or festival allowance which we are legally entitled to,” said Sreedharan Amaran, Velayudhan V., Krishna Das and Saleem, representing different trade unions. They said the cleaning staff were forced to work in unhealthy and unhygienic conditions at the airport. “There is not even a restroom for women workers,” they said.
