Meghalaya Progressive Worker Union demands Government to set a deadline for regularization of Contractual Workers

The Meghalaya Progressive Workers Union (MePWU) has demanded that the state government set a deadline for developing a strategy to regularise Meghalaya Electricity Corporation Limited's contractual employees (MeECL).
 
The MePWU launched its second phase of agitation, which will continue till September 16, demanding regularisation and the discharge of pending arrears from October 2018 to February 2019.
 
Speaking to the media, MePWU president Mantiphrang Lyngdoh Kiri stated that the union cannot accept deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong's claims that the department is in financial difficulty because the department had previously undertaken many projects costing crores of rupees.
 
Kiri further claimed that the regularisation of contractual employees is not an issue of financial availability, but rather of the department's desire, particularly with the MeECL board of directors.
 
“We will not call off our agitation and we demand from the department to set a deadline to come up with a policy on regularization of contractual employees as most of us are in the services for more than 20 years,” said Kiri. 
 
Kiri stated that the union had received a letter from the department requesting them to call off their ongoing agitation claiming the impact on services in terms of electricity supply, but that these are false claims to deter them from protesting the delay tactics used to satisfy their demands.
 
He stated that while the MePWU accepts the deputy chief minister's and management's assurances over pending arrears, it will not cease the agitation if the state government fails to call them for talks.
 
“When it comes to the pending arrears, we were informed that it is under examination hence we have omitted it from our charter of demands but when it comes to regularization, we want the concerned department to call us for talks to set up a deadline to come up with a policy for regularization of all contractual employees of MeECL”, he added.