Class IV employees held a rally outside the District Education Officers offices

Patiala, August 24: The Class IV Government Employees Union Punjab (1680), District Branch, organized a rally following a protest demonstration outside the offices of the District Education Officers (Senior Secondary and Primary) regarding the long-pending demands of Class IV employees in the Education Department. On this occasion, employee leaders Darshan Singh Lubana, Ram Lal Rama, Shiv Charan, Ram Prasad Sahota, and Inder Pal Walia stated that the government is failing to regularize the services of part-time workers (both male and female) who have been serving in various school roles for a long time.
They highlighted that Mid-Day Meal workers do not receive full wages on time; besides cooking, school heads extract extra work and even forced labor from them. They demanded that Mid-Day Meal workers be assigned only duties relevant to their designated roles, receive at least the minimum wage prescribed by the Labour Commissioner, have fixed working hours, see an end to the practice of forced labor, and be provided with due benefits, including compensation for accidents occurring during cooking.
Similarly, they demanded regularization of their services, noting that while Mid-Day Meal work is a daily necessity, they are paid a monthly salary of only ?3,000—payments that are often delayed by up to three months. They termed the practice of hiring sanitation workers and watchmen in government schools at monthly wages of ?3,000 and ?5,000 respectively, without fixed working hours, as economic exploitation.
They demanded full wages, fixed working hours, inclusion within the minimum wage bracket, weekly rest days, festival holidays, and other statutory benefits in accordance with labor laws. The rally also raised a dozen other demands, including the promotion of Class IV employees possessing the requisite educational qualifications, addressing the shortage of Class IV staff in schools, and the provision of uniforms. These leaders announced that Class IV employees from government and semi-government institutions would participate enthusiastically in the massive strike scheduled for August 27 by employees and pensioners.
The leaders who addressed the sit-in and rally included Darshan Singh Lubana, Ram Prasad Sahota, Ram Lal Rama (City President), Shiv Charan (Pensioners' President), Charanjit Singh Mardapur, Satnarayan Goni, Satnam Singh Ghanaur, Inderpal Walia, Prem Chawla, Tarlochan Madu, Harbans Verma, Prakash Lubana, Gurinder alias Guri, Rajesh Kumar, Balwinder Singh Patran, Ram Kailash, Dharminder Singh, Dharminder Kumar (Mata Kaushalya), Goldy Mardaheri, Manpreet Kaur, Harbans Kaur, Ram Jodha, and Bholi, among others.