Protest for regularisation of services enters 2nd day

Bhubaneswar: The ongoing protest at Mahatma Gandhi Road by outsourcing staff demanding the state government for regularization of their services entered its send day on Sunday. The prististers have threatened to stop work from Monday if the government does not fulfil their demand.

"Thousands of employe- es have been engaged in dif- ferent departments of the government and they are do- ing the same work as any re- gular employee, but at less than half of the salary. This is unfair as these workers don't get any facilities that the other government emp- loyees do, even though they have been working for seve- ral years. The outsourcing staff have been neglected by the government," president of Odisha Outsourcing Emp- loyees Association Sanjay Patnaik said.

The outsourcing employ- ees, who are engaged in both skilled and unskilled work in various government de- partments, alleged that they have been demanding regu- larization of jobs since 2018 but despite been given assu- rance several times in the past, the government did not fulfil their demands. "We ha- ve had enough of the discus- sions with the government. Now the authorities need to fulfil our demands, or else we will stop from tomorrow," Patnaik added.

He further said, "Even though the government had ensured timely salary to the outsourcing employees, we are not getting it on time. So- metimes we do not get paid for months at a stretch."