Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Demand for equal wages

Special Correspondent

Daily wage workers want their services regularised

GULBARGA: The daily wage workers of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board on Tuesday went on a sudden strike and staged a dharna in front of the office of the executive engineer of the board.

They demanded among other things the implementation of the rule of equal wages for equal work, and other benefits enjoyed by the permanent staff including extension of provident fund benefit to them.

The workers staged the dharna under the banner of Suvarna Karnaka Nagara Neeru Sarabaraju Mathu Olacharandi Dinaguli Noukarara Hitarakshana Sangha. In a memorandum addressed to the City Corporation Commissioner they pointed out that since 1997, they were working as daily wagers in the corporation getting a meagre salary. They pointed out that while the pump operators were paid Rs. 900 as monthly wages, an underground drainage labourer was paid Rs. 2,000 a month and other labourers were paid Rs. 1,500 a month. The memorandum said the principle of equal wages for equal work should be extended to them and the Government should regularise their services on humanitarian grounds.

A few residents complained that labourers disrupted water supply to their localities owing to the strike.

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