Led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), hundreds of civic workers (pourakarmikas) who were employed in the Kalaburagi City Municipal Corporation on a contract basis blocked the main road outside the district administrative complex in Kalaburagi on Saturday demanding the regularisation of their services.
The roadblock disrupted traffic on arterial roads in the city for a while. The agitating workers withdrew after an officer from the Deputy Commissioner’s office received the memorandum and assured necessary action.
“Kalaburagi is one of the fastest-growing cities in the State. The civic workers play a pivotal role in keeping the city clean. Most of the civic workers engaged in city cleaning are from the most downtrodden communities in society. The work they did during the COVID-19 pandemic is remarkable. They discharged their duties during the public health crisis while risking their lives. However, it is unfortunate that the government is paying little attention to the problems that civic workers are facing. Most of the civic workers are employed on a contract basis and there is no security for their jobs. The wages they receive are meagre,” K. Neela, district secretary of CPI(M), said during the agitation.
Wage disparity
Activist Meenakshi Bali said that the government’s contract labour system increased wage disparity among the workers and developed an unhealthy and discriminative work environment.
“The labourers employed on a contract basis are treated as slaves. They are given heavy work but little wages. They are threatened with firing from the job if they raise their voices against the exploitation, discrimination and abuse they are subjected to daily. Such an unhealthy, exploitative and discriminative work environment should be ended. The services of all the civic workers who are on a contract basis should be regularised. All the civic workers should be treated equally and paid equal salaries for equal work,” Ms. Bali said.
Sreemanth Biradar, Sharanabasappa Mamshetty, Sudham Dhanni, Pandurang Mavinkar, Virupakshappa Tadakal, Megharaj and other leaders of different labourers’ and farmers’ organisations were present.
List of demands
A memorandum was later submitted to the office of the Deputy Commissioner with a list of demands. These included ending the contract labour system and regularising the services of all civic workers working on contract labour system as a permanent measure, paying wages to civic workers every month on a specific date without fail, recruiting additional workers as per the growing needs, taking stringent measures to put an end to the discrimination, exploitation and abuse of the civic workers on contract basis, introducing welfare programmes to offer free housing and health coverage for civic workers and free education for their children and offering seniority and dearness allowance to the civic workers.
Civic workers staging a protest in Kalaburagi on Saturday. | Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI
Published - September 28, 2024 09:43 pm IST
