The members of Tamil Nadu Telecom Contract Workers Union (TNTCWU) in association with members of BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU) took out a rally here on Tuesday highlighting the need for fixing minimum wages at Rs.15,000 per month for every contract worker in BSNL.
Over two hundred members of these unions from Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari assembled near the Head Post office here on Tiruchendur Road and took out the rally, which proceeded to the Labour Enforcement Office, where they submitted a petition seeking to implement this wage hike.
M. Jayamurugan, district secretary, BSNLEU, said more than 200 contract workers had been working in the BSNL for over 10 years, but the payments they received were meagre. Every contract worker was being paid Rs.220 inclusive of a dearness allowance of Rs.100. Besides, after deducting 12 percent of the wages towards contribution of employees provident fund (EPF), every contract worker could draw only around Rs.4,400 as monthly wages. Only after holding several protest demonstrations and with strenuous efforts of these union members and several other trade unions, the Chief Labour Commissioner, in 2009, passed an order to revise the above mentioned wages and the BSNL head office implemented the order in 2010 to comply with the regulation of hike in DA at every six months interval for five years. Since this regulation ended in 2014, the BSNL authorities should revise the wages by a minimum of Rs.15,000 a month for contract worker. While the BSNL had been earning Rs.30,000 crore annually, the authorities should revise the wages for contract workers and implement the minimum wage system, he said.
The rally was led by R. Meyappan Christopher, district president of TNTCWU. V.P. Indira, Assistant Circle secretary of BSNLEU, R. Russel, state secretary of CITU and others attended.
