Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Trade unions give strike call

VISAKHAPATNAM: Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions has called for a general strike on August 20 to put pressure on the authorities to check price rise and ensure pay parity for the permanent and contract workers of public and private sectors.

P.K. Das, general secretary of Steel Workers Federation of India, told reporters on Saturday that due to whopping rise in prices of wheat, pulses, edible oil and other essentials, there was need to strengthen Public District System (PDS).

He said due to wide gap in income among permanent and private sector workers, most of the members of organised and unorganised sectors were finding it difficult to meet their basic requirements.

Threatening industrial unrest, he said they had been fighting for proportionate pay to all from top management to the lowest cadre staff to boost the morale of the workforce.

He said only six to seven per cent of total workforce in the public sector was filled with permanent employees and the rest was solely managed with contract employment to deny them decent wages. Mr. Das said 50 per cent DA merger for public sector employees should be implemented with effect from April 1, 2004 as done in the case of Central employees instead of January 1, 2007. He regretted that 26 lakh permanent posts in the public sectors had been scrapped due to various reasons and sought lifting of ban on filling vacant posts.

He said in the name of outsourcing, the government was denying social security measures to the workers. On authorising private banks along with SBI to manage pension funds, he was it was a big fraud and payment of just 8.5 per cent interest instead of market rate of 12 per cent was totally unjustified.

He wanted re-look at outsourcing policy in jobs of permanent measure and take steps to overcome the problem of unemployment.

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