Hyderabad: Electricity staff go on strike for equal payment
Unless consumers are given electricity bills, they cannot pay the charges.
Hyderabad: As many as 1,450 electricity meter-reading workers of TS Transco went on an indefinite strike on Saturday across the state demanding equal pay for equal work.
Mr Domakonda Sunil Kumar, president of the Telangana Electricity Meter Reading Workers’ Association, said they had been demanding unsuccessully for pay parity for three years. Even after they gave a strike notice on April 16, no one discussed their demands with them.
He said that personnel are paid Rs 1.70 to Rs 1.90 for each meter in rural areas, against Rs 1.50 in urban areas. He said the association wanted minimum wages in place of the piecemeal payment.
He said officials were brushing aside the demand saying the meter readers were either on contract or were outsourced workers.
Unless consumers are given electricity bills, they cannot pay the charges. Mr Kumar said every month they produce electricity bills to the tune of Rs 4 crore and the contactor pays them Rs 80 lakh to them.