Chandigarh:- Powercom has decided to bring outsourced workers who have been working in thermal power plants for a long time under the contract system. The outsourced workers of thermal power plants were currently on strike due to which technical problems were arising in thermal plants. Powercom has also issued a notification yesterday to bring these workers directly under contract in Powercom. The union of outsourced workers has ended the strike after the notification was issued.
According to the notification issued by Powercom, out of these four categories of workers, those who have completed three years of service are to be taken under the contract system, while the rest will be put on contract after completing three years. Earlier, these workers used to work under private contractors. Now, after coming under the direct contract system, they will also get the benefits of contractor's margin, additional profit of GST savings and gratuity etc.
About 3500 outsourced workers will get the benefit of this decision of Powercom. Most of the workers were working on outsource since 1997. Powercom had earlier decided to bring outsourced workers working in the field under the contract system, but outsourced workers of thermal power plants were kept out of this scope, due to which these workers went on strike. The leaders of the unions of these workers had a meeting with Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on June 22.
Finance Minister Cheema had assured them in that meeting to issue a notification by June 30. Sukhwinder Singh Bath, president of Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Contract Workers Union, said that with the issuance of the notification, a long-standing demand has been fulfilled. He said that the strike has now been called off.