I am happy that many TTA comrades have commented about discriminations against them by the management and certain issues which are pending settlement. These comments are made in connection with the post in which the injustice done to the casual and contract workers were mentioned by me. Before going in to the issues of the DR TTAs, I would like to point out one crucial difference between the issues of the casual/contract labour and the regular worker including the TTAs.

There are settled orders, agreements, court judgments etc. with regard to the regular workers which are implemented by and large. For the regular workers, the fight mainly is for getting  for new wage revisions, promotional policies, other benefits and improving the service conditions etc. This is continuing for decades and will continue further.

With regard to the casual and contract worker the main issue is that even the Acts of the Parliament, the government orders and the decisions of the Labour Courts etc. is not implemented either by the managements or by the contractors. Even the minimum wage decided by the government is not paid in most of the places, though the funds are spent for the same. Social security measures like PF, Insurance etc. are not implemented. Paid weekly off is denied eventhough  order exists for the same. It is inhuman exploitation and violation of rules and regulations. For the casual and contract labour the immediate requirement is at least to implement the existing orders on all the above. They also have got a lot of demands, but the priority is implementation of the existing orders. In the case of regular employees, the orders are implemented, but their genuine demands thave to be achieved.

Why the casual and contract labour could not get the benefits? One is the combined exploitation by the contractor and the management. Second is the lack of knowledge and information about the rights of the workers both by the worker and the management. Third and most important is the absence of a strong union for the casual contract workers. It is only  a few years back that a union for these downtrodden was formed. Through sustained struggles, Parliament March, taking the issues in the Parliamentary Standing Committees, going on for arbitration and also many,, the conditions have at least some what improved. For example in W.Bengal, Kolkatta, T.Nadu and to a certain extent in Kerala, due to continuous struggle many of the orders have been got implemented. Struggles are taking place in other places also where the union is formed and strengthened. Even for implementation of the orders, a strong union is necessary. Why I am writing on the issues of these unorganised section of workers is that they are part of the BSNL workforce and they also have a right to work and get the benefit of the existing rules and laws. I have got full hope that all the regular employees will support the cause of these downtrodden workers. I will be posting on the issues of the TTAs shortly.    (contd..)