Tangedco workers stage protest urging government to fill vacancies

CITU workers protest over 53,000 vacant Tangedco positions, demanding government action for workers' rights and safety.

Stating that over 53,000 positions in Tangedco have remained vacant for many years and urging the State government to fulfil their charter of demands, workers affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) staged a protest in front of the office of the Superintending Engineer in Erode on Tuesday.

Led by CITU Erode branch president M.R. Periyasamy, the protestors said that over 33,000 posts of field assistants, junior assistants, technical assistants and 20,000 other posts have been lying vacant for many years which has affected the organisation’s functioning. The field staff, including contract workers and line inspectors, are under tremendous stress due to an increase in workload that affected their health. They are unable to provide the best service to the consumers and there is an urgent need to fill the vacancies, they said.

Their other demands are to stop the move to bifurcate Tangedco, implement the old pension scheme, increase the family protecting fund to ₹5 lakh, provide compensation of ₹10 lakh to workers’ families in case of death during work, regularise jobs of contract workers who had served for 10 years and provide all statutory benefits without delay.