Shillong, August 15: KHNAM youth wing has written to the Chief Secretary of Meghalaya on the appointment on contracts basis in the on MeECL, saying that the corporation has violated the government notification of 1989.
In the letter sent to the Chief Secretary said that, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited vide reference No. MeECL/CA/PER/153/2016/110 dated 27th July 2018 has notified that all casual workers engaged under the MeECL and its subsidiary Company are henceforth to be engaged on a Contractual Basis for a period of 1 (One) Year, by duly signing the contract prepared by the Corporation between the employee, the Employer.
That, the MeECL has violated the Government of Meghalaya office Memorandum No. PER.(O/O) 57/89/1 dated 18th April 1989 which has instructed that appointment on Contract Basis has to be for specific time bound schemes or programmes or for obtaining technical man power from outside the State to temporarily tide over the State’s requirement till such time suitable local personnel are available.
That, the MeECL has a large number of employee employed with the MeECL and its subsidiary company, who have been employed and served the MeECL for many years with service of more then 10,15,20 years. Now the Corporation is forcing these employees to convert them as contractual employee and to do away with the casual employee. This is a clear attempt of suppression of rights. It is seen that with trends like this, if this contract is allowed to be completed, we could sadly say that the MeECL will not have any EMPLOYEE but rather SLAVES working in the Corporation.
That, there is a clear notification from the Government of Meghalaya(No. PER.(O/O) 57/89/1 dated 18th April 1989) that all proposals for appointment on Contract Service are submitted to the Cabinet for its approval, after having obtaining the approval of the Personnel and Finance Department. The MeECL has clearly violated the above notification and therefore, the attempt of the MeECL to convert all casual employees into contractual employee for a period of one year needs to be stop immediately.
That, as per the contract agreement, the Corporation has also not followed or incorporated the “Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 which came into force on April 01, 2017.
That, the significant verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India for implantation of “Equal Pay for Equal Work” has not been made applicable to the employee of the Corporation. The Bench has also said “anyone, who is compelled to work at a lesser wage, does not do so voluntarily. He does so to provide food and shelter to his/her family, at the cost of his self-respect dignity, at the cost of his self-work and at the cost of his integrity.
KHNAM said that this an attempt of the Corporation could rightly term as “Exploitative Enslavement” and “Coercive”. Most of the citizen/youth of the state employed at corporation like MeECL have been employed on a temporary basis for a period of 10-20 years without any security of employment, which given them and their family an uncertainty for future.
The rights of these employees need to be protected at all time and it is the Government duties and responsibility to ensure that we have Employee and not slave working to build our state. Your kind intervention on the matter is kindly requested.
