May Day was a sombre affair here this year as activists of trade unions railed against an alleged raft of anti-worker measures instituted by the government.
The activists said that the measures have hit them harder than expected, as they coincided with the coronavirus lockdown.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s decision to remove 1,400 contract employees in one go was criticised as ‘anything but humane’. Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Chittoor district (East) committee said that the workers, most of them working in the sanitation, health and maintenance sectors, had risked their lives to serve the pilgrims, only to be shown the door at a time of crisis.
“Though the human resource suppliers kept changing over the years, the workers were always retained by the successive contractors for nearly two decades, but this time, the decision to sack 1,400 workers, 700 each at Tirumala and Tirupati, was taken in the guise of removing the contractors appointed during the TDP regime,” activists alleged.
“Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised ahead of elections to introduce time scale, but instead his government sacked the contract workers,” lamented CITU general secretary Kandharapu Murali at a May Day event on Friday.
At the event organised by CPI and AITUC after hoisting the red flag on Friday, CPI district secretary A. Rama Naidu said that the anti-worker measures would not be tolerated, adding that anomalies in wage structure and violation of the minimum wage rules would also be fought against.
All India Postal Employees Union Group ‘C’ observed the event as an agitation, protesting against the Centre for the freeze on dearness allowance. NFPE State secretary B. Sridhar Babu accused the Centre of trampling over workers’ rights and making life miserable for the middle classes. “The COVID-19 situation only came as an excuse for the Centre to lay its hands on our DA, though the Central employees are working overtime during the lockdown period,” he said.
In Srikalahasti, TDP leader P.R. Mohan hailed the frontline workers and distributed fruits to policemen guarding red zones and to sanitary workers. At Kadapa, Insurance Corporation Employees Union (ICEU) president Avadhanam Srinivas, vice-president S. Akbar Basha and general secretary A. Raghunatha Reddy hoisted the red flag and took a vow to safeguard and retain LIC in the public sector.