HYDERABAD: The indefinite strike call given by the Telangana Municipal Employees and Workers’ Association will continue as the talks between the state government and the employees’ unions have failed.
The state government represented by home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, finance minister Etela Rajender, CDMA commissioner B Janardhan Reddy and GHMC special officer Somesh Kumar held talks with representatives of various municipal unions at the Secretariat here on Monday.
The ministers requested the civic employees to call off their strike as the state governmment is keen on solving their demands at the earliest. ‘’The chief minister is not in the city, as an when he comes back, we will put the demands before him. Till then, we request to call off the strike,’’ Nayani Narasimha Reddy said.
The union leaders informed the ministers that they would not call off their strike till their demands are met with. A meeting with chief minister is expected to be held on Tuesday.
Meanwhile sweeping of roads, lifting and transportation of garbage and other sanitation works in the city came to a grinding halt on Monday as contract workers and outsourcing employees stayed off from their duties.
As many as eight unions including CITU, BMS, AITUC, HMS, IFTU, AIUTUC, TRSKV, TNTUC under the banner of Telangana Municipal Employees and Workers United Association participated in the strike.
Their demands include regularisation of contract workers, increase in salaries of sanitation workers from Rs 14,170 to Rs 17,380, open GPF account for permanent employees, deposit of PF and ESI amount in workers’ accounts, allotment of BHK houses for employees, apart from providing `5 lakh for insurance cover. However, the GHMC officials claimed that the strike was partial, as major recognised unions are not participating in the stir.