CHENNAI: The State government on Thursday announced pay hike for employees, hired on consolidated pay, of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASMAC).
The supervisors of the retail outlets will get a hike of Rs 750 per month while salesmen and assistant salesmen get a hike of Rs 600 and Rs 500 respectively. The hike will come into effect from September.
“As many as 7, 287 supervisors, 15,532 salesmen and 3,644 assistant salesmen will benefit from the hike.
An additional allocation of Rs 19.93 crore will be made for meeting the expenditure incurred through the hike,” P Thangamani, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise, announced in the Assembly after replying to the debate on the demand for grants to the department.
He noted that all 26,463 workers employed in retail outlets had been given regular pay hike every year since 2011. However, the employees have expressed disappointment over the hike.
According to Saravanan, general secretary of TASMAC Employees Union (CITU), Chennai district, the current hike was made without taking into consideration the demand made by the employees.
“We have been demanding that the assistant salesmen’s salary be fixed at Rs 18, 000 per month, which is the minimum wage fixed by the Union government, and accordingly the salary for supervisors and salesmen must be fixed. But we are given a paltry hike,” he rued.
As of now, the salary of a supervisor is Rs 9,500 while salesmen and assistant salesmen are paid Rs 7,500 and Rs 6,500 per month, he said.
The minister also announced that the amount paid through family welfare fund would be increased to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 1.50 lakh, for which an amount of Rs 60 per month will be deducted from the salary of the employees.