Urging the State government to regularise the contract workers in local bodies, members of the Erode District Local Body Workers’ Association submitted a petition to the district administration here on Wednesday.
Led by K. Subbarayan, Tiruppur MP and State president of AITUC, members urged the government to stop recruiting workers on contract basis or outsourcing agencies for the corporation, municipalities, town panchayats and other local bodies. “The government should directly recruit them on a permanent basis”, they said. They said that discrepancy prevails in wages among the workers in local bodies and wanted equal pay for equal work as ordered by the Supreme Court. “All the local bodies should ensure minimum wages,” the letter said and wanted the vacancies to be filled in all the local bodies.
The letter said that Thuimai Kavalargal were paid a monthly salary of ₹ 3,600, while tank operators were given ₹ 4,000 a month. “Their jobs should be regularised and they should be given a minimum monthly wage of ₹ 15,000,” the letter said.
Their other demands were scrapping of new pension scheme, disbursement of wages within the fifth of every month, providing necessary safety gadgets to workers, implementing all labour welfare laws and providing an incentive of ₹ 15,000 to all those who worked during COVID-19.
The petition was handed over to District Revenue Officer P. Murugesan. Former MLAs P.L. Sundaram and N. Periyasamy, District AITUC president S. Chinnasamy, secretary, R. Maniyan, treasurer P. Ravi and over 750 workers were present.
