Workers of govt hostels, schools demand regularisation of jobs

Members of the Karnataka State Government Hostel and Residential Schools Contract Workers’ Association staged a protest near deputy commissioner’s office here on Saturday, opposing the government’s move to recruit 5,000 Group-D employees for residential schools and hostels.

The agitators demanded the regularisation of the services of cooks, assistants, security personnel and the civic workers.

“Despite harassment by contractors, we have been working in the schools run by the Social Welfare Department and Backward Classes and Minorities department for many years now and the government had promised to regularise our services but now it has issued a notification to appoint 5,000 employees. The move is a blow to contract workers,” they said.

Earlier too, the state government had issued a notification to recruit permanent employees but due to severe opposition, the recruitment process was dropped.

As per the notification, SSLC is mandatory for cooks and it is condemnable as cooks need culinary skills and not an educational qualification, they said.

Association district unit convener Surya and co-convener Shashivardhan were also present.