All work and no pay for Soudha’s contract staff

BENGALURU: Contractual employees working at the offices of the three Deputy Chief Ministers, other cabinet ministers and even MLAs, most of whom work at Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha, have not been paid salaries since November. 

There are about 250 employees working in the offices of ministers as. Many of them have been working for the last 10-15 years on contract. “We are employed as long as one party is in power. Once their term ends or if the House is dissolved, we are removed from our jobs. After the election, when a new government comes in, we have to approach the new minister or their people to get back to work,’’ said an employee who did not want to be identified.

The salaries of these contracted employees varies from Rs 17,000 to Rs 42,000 per month. Praveenkumar Salimath of the Karnataka State Assembly and Council Assistants’ Association said that while permanent staff gets their salaries by the fifth of every month, they get salaries only in the second to third week of the month. “For the last two to three months, we have not got salaries at all. We too have families,’’ he said.

These employees play an important role in the running of the ministers’ offices, inter-department coordination and also the constituencies. “We are working for many years and can’t find job outside due to the age factor. We are not demanding permanent jobs, but we only want job security,’’ Salimath said.
When contacted, a senior official of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, pointed out that the permanent staff in ministers’ and MLAs’ offices come under Revenue department and their salaries comes from there.

“Employees on contract come under the DPAR and their salaries are paid by our department. There are some issues which we are trying to sort out. We are planning to bring both the permanent and contractual employees under the Secretariat. By doing so, the Secretariat will pick up the salary tab and all issues will be sorted out,”  the official said.