Kochi: Days after a group of sextons formed a trade union, the archdiocese of Verapoly made it clear on Monday that it would not “recognise the union under any circumstances.”
In the first such initiative, around 50 sextons under the leadership of lawyer Paulachan Puthuppara Joseph had for-med the All-Kerala Church Staff Welfare Asso-ciation, the registered trade union of sextons of Catholic Churches in the region, on August 6.
“It was an unofficial meeting held at the behest of Paulachan Puthuppara Joseph, who has nothing to do with sextons. He misguided them. The archdiocese won’t recognize the body,” said Mr Sherry J. Thomas, spokesperson, Verapoly Archdiocese.
However, the Church representative admitted that nearly 50 sextons of churches under the Ern-akulam-Angamaly archdiocese had attended the meeting.
Stating that there is already a ‘Pastor Council’ to take up issues of the sextons among others, the Church official said no action would be taken against those who joined as members of the trade union.
“We’ve not got any official communication tho-ugh we heard of such a move through the social media. Hence, there is no need for disciplinary action,” he said.
“The incident in which a sexton was forced to undergo suffering for a long period that finally led him to murder a priest out of frustration led us to form such an organisation. It will take up only justifiable demands like decent wage, provident fund and ESI benefits already promised to the category in the ‘Laws and Guidelines of Vara-ppuzha Athiroopatha’,” Mr Paulachan told DC.
Mr Antony Puthanveetil (Tekkan Chittor Tirukudumba Devalayam) was elected as the president of the union and Mr O.J. Varghese secretary (Karunya Matha Palli, Ponnarimangalam).
