Mid-day meal workers hold protests across HP over regularisation

A delegation of union members also handed over a memorandum to the director of education.

State mid-day meal workers’ union on Thursday staged protests across Himachal demanding their regularisation as per the recommendation of the 45th Labour Conference.

Mid-day meal workers raise slogans seeking regularisation of their services outside the education directorate in Shimla on Thursday. (Deepak Sansta/HT)

On the nation-wide protest call given by All India Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Federation, the state unit members carried out demonstrations in Shimla, Rampur, Rohru, Nahan, Solan, Arki, Nalagarh, Chamba, Dharamshala, Hamirpur, Mandi, Karsog, Sarkaghat, Jogindernagar, Saraj, Kullu, Banjar, Ani and Una.

Apart from this, the mid-day meal workers have demanded that they should be given a monthly pay of ₹8,250 based on the state’s minimum salary, besides EPF, medical coverage, holidays, pension and gratuity on retirement, maternity leave with six months’ salary, appointment as multi-task workers on the lines of anganwadi supervisors.

Due to the hilly terrain, the condition of providing mid-day meals to maximum 25 children should be removed and at least two workers should be appointed in every school and given twelve months’ salary as decided by the Himachal high court.

A delegation of mid-day meal workers also handed over a memorandum to the director of education.

State union president Kanta Mahant said the central and state governments were continuously exploiting the mid-day meal workers. “We are being paid a monthly salary of only ₹2,300 and are not granted any leaves.”

“We are not being given regular employee status as recommended by the 45th Labor Conference of 2013. Instead of being paid twelve months’ salary as decided by the Himachal high court, we are being given only ten months’ pay. Around 6,740 workers have been laid off in the last few years in the state,” rued Mahant.