SHILLONG, Sep 5: Employees of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited on Monday held a sit-in in protest against the delay of the management in fulfilling their long-pending demand for regularisation of the casual staff.
The protest was organised by the MeECL Progressive Workers’ Union (MePWU) on the corporation premises at Lumjingshai.
Talking to reporters, MePWU president Mantiphrang Lyngdoh Giri demanded that the MeECL management should set a timeline for regularisation of services of the casual employees.
According to him, the MeECL management has been dilly-dallying on their demand since 2017 with the excuse that they were examining a policy for regularisation of the service of the casual employees. “We want the regularisation policy to be continuous so that the casual staff are regularised as and when it is due,” Giri said.
Rejecting the claim of the management that they are not able to consider the demand due to financial constraints, he pointed out that the management has outsourced the work for maintenance of the 56 sub-stations of MeECL to a private player by earmarking Rs 2 crore for the first year and with an annual increment of 5%.
“But the management could not move forward and had to cancel this proposal due to stiff opposition from the employees and the pressure groups,” Giri recalled.
According to him, the MeECL management could have easily regularised the services of over 600 casual employees with an amount of Rs 2 crore.
The MePWU president welcomed the recent decision of the MeECL management to release their pending arrears.
