Kodandaram takes up the cause of outsourcing staff, contract workers

A call for constitution of joint action committee of outsourcing employees and contract workers across departments to secure their demands was given by the Political Joint Action Committee chairman M. Kodandram here on Saturday.

Mr. Kodandaram obviously referred to the successful role played by JACs of different sections of people in the struggle for statehood in giving the call at a meeting of members of Telangana State Housing Corporation Outsourcing Employees Union.

Enunciating TJAC’s agenda for the contract/outsourcing employees, he put forth four demands to the government, for pay revision on par with regular employees, announcement of an exclusive HR policy for them, direct payment of salaries and doing away with contractor system, and roster-based regularisation of Category III and IV employees.

Addressing a packed hall, Mr. Kodandram also made an appeal to the State Government to protect the Telangana State Housing Corporation and reinstate the outsourcing employees who have been removed.

The meeting was organised by TJAC on behalf of the union, as a forum to demand for reinstatement of 1,179 employees who had been fired from their jobs on March 31 this year, on allegations of corruption.

Demand by the union should be for reconstruction of the corporation rather than to adjust them in various posts across other departments, Prof. Kodandram advised, and said the corporation had built houses for thousands of poor people, and should not be shut down on random allegations of corruption. Instead, the irregularities should be probed into, and those responsible should be punished.

Privatisation is not an answer for corruption, he said, and took the analogy of private hospitals to prove his point. Private sector may benefit from public infrastructure, but cannot itself create any facility. If provided encouragement, the Housing Corporation employees can come up with more viable plans for construction of double bedroom houses, than the Malaysia or Singapore-based companies, he said.

Retired High Court Judge B. Chandrakumar said as per the Industrial Disputes Act, those who have worked for more than 180 days underground, or 240 days over the ground, cannot be removed from their jobs. He warned the TRS leaders that the time would come when they would be removed from their jobs.

Telangana Electricity Employees’ JAC leader K. Raghu assured the ousted employees that the TJAC would take the responsibility of addressing their problems, and said the contract/outsourcing employees were the backbone for the movement for separate Telangana.

TJAC coordinator Pittala Ravinder urged the union to provide leadership to all the outsourcing employees across the State in a fight for removal of the word ‘outsourcing’ from the official jargon.

Telangana Vidyavanthula Vedika’s State president Gurijala Ravinder Rao, and Editor of Veekshanam , N. Venugopal, too announced their support to the employees.