The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)-affiliated workers employed in the fair price shops (FPS) under the cooperative sector have complained of frequent harassments at the hands of officials from different departments who conduct checks and make them accountable for mistakes which occur beyond their control.
“At a time when the initial volumes of essential commodities supplied to the fair price shops itself falls short of the quantities assigned, the workers are held accountable whenever squads carry out checks. “We are not saying that action should not be taken any erring workers. But, the workers employed in the outlets are mostly penalised for no fault of them for the deficiency in the stock position with them and are forced to pay exorbitant amounts as fine from their pockets,” CITU State secretary M. Chandran told reporters.
The grievances of the workers were aired at the zonal meeting of Tamil Nadu Cooperative Workers’ Union held here on Sunday covering workers from Tirupur, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Namakkal, Erode Karur and Salem.
The workers were of the opinion that the checks should be conducted by some designated squads.
“These days, officials from different departments come in separately in tandem and disturb the workers,” they said. Among the demands, the workers wanted the entire workforce in cooperative sector fair price shops to be brought under time-scale pay and pension should be sanctioned.
They also called upon the State Government to extend medical coverage to the workers and allocate Rs. 5,000 towards funeral expenses to the family of the workers who died in harness.
