Contract pourakarmikas to protest on Women's Day

Hundreds of contract pourakarmikas plan to take part in the protest on International Women’s Day to oppose the garbage contract system which they claim is discriminatory and exploitative.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, members of the BBMP Guttige Pourakarmikara Sangha said that they plan to hold a massive protest at BBMP head office on March 8 as the past three protests held a few months ago yielded no results in spite of promises by the higher officials of the Palike to them.

“The government says that they support us and have hiked our wages with effect from August 2016, but we are yet to get the new wages. In several areas, we get the wages we were paid in 2014.

The BBMP promises us that they will provide us drinking water, toilets, changing rooms, rest rooms, brooms, masks, gloves and other cleaning equipment. We want to be regularised,” said Nirmala, general secretary of Sangha.

The Sangha members said that the pourakarmikas they work for abuse them and cheat them of ESI and PF benefits that they are statutorily owed.

Their demands include immediate payment of the revised minimum wage of Rs 14,439 to all contract pourakarmikas, a full-day weekly off, national and festival holidays and termination of all contracts among others.