agitation

BERHAMPUR: Members of the BSNL Casual Karamchari Sangh (BCKS) demonstrated in front of the offices of the Provident Fund Commissioner and divisional headquarters of the BSNL in the city on Wednesday.
They were protesting against the authorities ‘failure' in providing basic amenities including the implementation of EPF and ESI schemes. The agitating BCKS activists were led by its State general secretary B. Rambabu. Leaders of several trade unions also extended their support to the agitation.
The BCKS activists first demonstrated in front of the office of the Provident Fund Commissioner. Later, they marched in a rally to the office of the General Manager Telecom Division (GMTD), Berhampur, where they sat on dharna. The agitating workers also handed over a memorandum to him with their charter of six demands.
In the afternoon a delegation of the BCKS that included Mr. Rambabu and president of Berhampur unit of CITU, Ram Chandra Nayak, met the authorities of BSNL.
Demands conceded
According to Mr. Rambabu, the BSNL authorities agreed to fulfil most of their demands as a result of which they decided to end their agitation. The first demand of the workers was reinstatement of casual workers who had been retrenched. The BSNL authorities agreed to take back the retrenched workers, Mr. Rambabu said. Another major demand which was fulfilled was enhancement of their remuneration. They alleged that they were getting meagre sums ranging from Rs. 300 to Rs. 1,500 per month, which was much less than the minimum wage policy of the government. The greatest incongruity was that in adjoining West Bengal their counterparts were getting more than Rs. 5,000 per month with facility of a special pension scheme for them, he pointed out.
According to the leaders, following talks the BSNL authorities of Berhampur division agreed to pay Rs. 150 per day to the casual employees. This move would pave way for enhancement of pay packet of casual employees in other BSNL divisions. The BSNL authorities also agreed to direct the contractors to start implementing EPF and ESI schemes for the casual employees.