By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: At the call of the State Committee of All Odisha Bharti Infratel Contractual Technicians Union (AOBICTU) affiliated to the Central Trade Union-AIUTUC, a two-days Dharana (Sit-in-demonstration) programme has started in the capital city of Bhubaneswar in front of Lok Seba Bhawan on 21st and shall continue up to 22nd of November this year against exploitation, unfair labour practices like suspension, dismissal, verbal threats to take away jobs, discriminatory payment of monthly salary including increase in annual increments without any scientific basis to the technicians serving there for 14 years by the unscrupulous officers of Human Resource Department of Indus Towers Limited (Formerly Bharti Infratel Limited) Company, Odisha Circle and demanding regularisation of jobs.
Now, the mobile service has become an essential item in the daily life of human being like food, drink and housing. The company has also admitted that telecom is an emergency service like health services, ambulance, police, etc. Around 424 technicians working under Indus Towers Limited (Formerly Bharti Infratel Limited) all over Odisha for 14 years do provide this mobile service with determination regardless of hail, stormy rain, winter frost, etc.. the Company, far from giving permanent employment to the technicians who are doing this work remaining alert for 24 hours throughout the day and night under adverse situation but receiving the minimum wage for only one shift duty i,e, 8 hours, the HR Executives of the Company are taking unfair, undemocratic, arbitrary and inhumane decisions against them.
State President of the organization Dr. Purna Chandra Behera, Working President Pradesh Kumar Nayak, Vice Presidents Ashok Kumar Sahu and Niranjan Mohanty, General Secretary Buguru Trinath and Secretary Nilendrakant Acharya said that the future of the jobs of technicians needs to be safeguarded, anyhow, as it is under constant threat.
Among their demands 1- to provide permanent employment to all technicians working under the company, 2- to make payments on seniority-juniority basis to all technicians working across Odisha for doing the same work and those whose annual increments are reduced to zero or less than Rs 1,000/- and to pay their due salary immediately, 3- to withdraw the show cause notices, warning letters, transfer letters, termination & suspension letters, etc. given to the technicians and 4- to re-employ both Sandeep Beuria and Akshay Raut who were Disengaged and suspended from their jobs in the last few months. The Sit-in-demonstrators were addressed by senior leaders of AIUTUC, Odisha State Committee, Bishnupada
Das, Purna Chandra Behera, Rajkishore Mallick, Pradipta Ram and the Office-Bearers of the Union discussing in details how the Company exploits the technicians in various ways. Leaders of the Union warned that the agitation would be intensified in the coming days if the HRD officers of the Odisha Circle of the Company did not comply with the above demands.
