The indefinite strike by contract workers and outsourced workers of the Electricity Department is being intensified from Saturday.
Meter Readers of AP EPDCL, owing allegiance to AP EPDCL Meter Readers’ Union, affiliated to CITU, have announced their decision to join the indefinite strike with effect from Saturday.
It may be recalled that the contract and outsourced electricity workers all over the State are on an indefinite strike from Feb. 20 seeking abolition of contract system in the Electricity Department and payment of salaries on par with employees, who are on the rolls of the department, honouring the Supreme Court order on ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’.
The meter readers had completed the billing work, when the strike was launched last month. They have decided to indefinitely suspend their door-to-door visits for spot billing for issue the electricity bills from March 3.
Union honorary president G.S. Rajeswara Rao said the meter readers are paid measly amounts, based on ‘piece rate’. There are around 5,000 metre readers in the State. Some of the contractors do not even pay the rate fixed by the management and in some cases PF and ESI were not implemented for meter readers.
The meter readers were facing difficulties in running their families as they were not even getting ₹ 5,000 a month. When they have no spot billing work, they were being utilised as assistants by the permanent staff.
The meter readers appealed to electricity consumers to bear with them as they were resorting to the strike only as a last resort after their just demands were being ignored by the government.
Union general secretary V. Satyanarayana and district secretary V. Srinivasa Rao decried the inaction of the government in meeting the demands of the electricity workers.
