The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Southco staff seek fair deal to casual workers

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Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
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Southco staff seek fair deal to casual workers

Staff Reporter

Stage dharna in front of their main office

Appointment of outsiders alleged
The employees threaten to intensify stir

BERHAMPUR: Employees of the power distribution company, Southco, staged a dharna in front of their head office in the city on Tuesday demanding preference to serving casual employees during recruitment.

Leaders of the ‘Bijuli Karmachari Sangh’, Panchanan Jena and Chandrasekhar Achari alleged that the Southco authorities were appointing outsiders on permanent basis sidelining the casual employees who had been serving the company since last three years.

At present there are 324 casual employees working with the Southco.

They include ITI trained technicians, data entry operators, clerical staff and peons. Out of them, 203 are ITI trained technicians.

Since long, the employees’ union of the power distribution company was demanding regularisation of the casual workers.

Interviews

The company held interviews for 500 posts of technicians and other jobs. Recently results for 201 posts of technicians were declared. Only 40 per cent of the selected technicians were the casual workers who have served the company for past three years.

Plea to authorities

The union asked the Southo authorities to provide appointment letters to all 203 ITI trained casual labourers.

The employees belonging to the union threatened to intensify their agitation and launch indefinite hunger strike if their just demands were not conceded immediately.

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