Hundreds of employees engaged in serving milk and noon meals in government schools staged a demonstration to press for their demands on Tuesday.
Under the banner of the Puducherry Bread and Milk Workers’ Association, they took out a march to the Assembly, demanding a wage hike, timely payment of salary and regularisation of their services. Around 800 workers are employed by Ponlait in government schools to boil milk and serve noon meals to the students, a worker said.
For several months, salary payment had been delayed by several days. The association has been demanding the enhancement of their wage from ₹6,458 per month to ₹10,000 per month. The workers have also been demanding the regularisation of their services and the payment of salary by the Education Department instead of routing it through Ponlait.
The protest went on till late evening. The workers called off the strike after Education Minister A. Namassivayam met them at the protest venue and promised to address all their grievances
