Hyderabad: The Telangana Vidyut Contract Employees' Union has served notice for an indefinite strike from July 21, if their pending demands are not resolved immediately. The state government on July 29, 2017, issued orders for absorbing 22,000 contract workers amid ongoing cases in the High Court. The department has not filed counter-writ in the court so far, said the union.
Union general secretary S. Sailu said: “Our main demands include that the department should file the counter- affidavit in the High Court, implementation of the Pay Revision Commission and one job for the family of deceased employees. We demand for regularising the remaining 7,000 contract workers.”
The employees said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had given an assurance in the Assembly on 23,000 contract employees being absorbed by power utilities.
“The state government talks about regularisation, while the department says it would absorb. The issue of regularising contract workers lacks clarity,” Mr Sailu said.
Meanwhile, power sector employees nationwide threaten a 24-hour strike on December 7 to protest the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014, which seeks to extend privatisation to the distribution of electricity, and consequently, "to snatch away: the right to electricity of the poor.
The draft Bill on power reforms is expected to be tabled in Parliament in July. The Union power ministry supported the privatisation of area-wise power distribution.
