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MTNL C&D staff stage protest against wage agreement
Neeraja Kumar
New Delhi: Nearly 600 Group C and D employees of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) went on a day-long "dharna" on Tuesday, to protest against the "raw deal" given to them in the wage agreement signed between the MTNL management and the Union, lead by Choudhary Swaroop Singh, last month. The protesting employees, who are the members of the K M Pillai lead-Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Employees Union, said that the pay scales and increment rates in the wage agreement were lower than that of the other PSU navratna's like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). According to them, the newly-signed wage agreement is for 10 years, while the agitating faction wanted it to be for five years.They are also upset over the fact that the wage agreement does not include promotional schemes and curtails overtime. They also want the number of work days, which have now been increased to six days a week under the wage agreement, to be reverted to the earlier five days a week. Other demands of the protesting employees include giving HRA with effect from November 1, 1998 instead of the November 19, 1999 envisaged in the current wage agreement. They also want the other allowances to be given with effect from November 1998, instead of July 20, 2000 as written in the wage agreement. The employees also plan to hold a demonstration on August 17, if their demands are not met. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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