Hind Mazdoor Kisan Panchayat (HMKP) has demanded a hike in pension for the 5.5 crore employees covered by the Employees Pension Scheme, 1995.
HMKP president Michael B. Fernandes told presspersons here on Tuesday that the amount available in the accumulated corpus under the scheme was about Rs. 2 lakh crore and the annual average interest was about Rs. 17,000 crore. “An average pension of Rs. 2,500 a month can be paid,” he said. “Though the government promised that minimum pension will be raised to Rs. 1,000, it is yet to see the light of day,” Mr. Fernandes said. The maximum pension paid so far was Rs. 1,850 and some get pension as low as Rs. 100, he said.
The HMKP also said that minimum wages fixed were “sub-normal and dearness allowance niggardly” which was inadequate to neutralise the rise in the price of essential commodities.
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Their other demands include abolition of contract system, declaration of all natural resources as national resources, health protection for garbage and sewage workers, and guarantee of share in enterprise for those who lose land for the setting up of industries.
In Bangalore, the HMKP has decided to launch an agitation against two multinational companies — a French company in Doddaballapur and a Germany company in Peenya industrial area — for allegedly violating labour laws and harassing workers for unionising. L. Kalappa, general secretary of the HMKP, alleged that office-bearers of the unions had been arbitrarily sacked and false cases foisted on them. “The police are hand in glove with the managements, and the Labour Department has failed to take action against them,” he said, and alleged that the owners of the companies had spoken disparagingly against the Indian laws.
Subhash Malgi, all-India general secretary of the HMKP, said the issue would be taken up at the national level.
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