The protest tents that stand pitched in front of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) administrative office for nearly a fortnight are indication over the simmering discontent among the employees over the management’s alleged indifference.
On one hand, the contract employees are protesting against the decision to get them into a newly-formed corporation, while on the other, the workers in the Facility Management Services (FMS) wing are raising their voice demanding implementation of time scale.
Following the TTD’s decision to float Sri Lakshmi Srinivasa Manpower Corporation to bring all the outsourced employees working under different societies and agencies under one roof, the latter are insisting on payment on time scale basis, including DA and HRA.
On the eleventh day of their protest on Tuesday, the FMS workers stood on their knees and offered ‘harathi’ to the image of Lord Venkateswara, seeking his intervention to settle their pending issues.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) State vice-president Ajay Kumar, who addressed the workers to express solidarity, appealed to the TTD to stop bullying or harassing the workers and in turn, look at the issue in a humanitarian angle. Recalling the Supreme Court’s directive on ‘Equal pay for equal work’, he not only wondered how the TTD management could ignore the ruling, but also on the manner it was insisting the contractor to replace the agitating workers.
