More than 5 lakh outsourced employees in MP miss Diwali salaries
Workers in the health and education departments face financial difficulties as many have not received payments or bonuses despite government directives.
More than 5 lakh outsourced employees in Madhya Pradesh did not receive their salaries before Diwali, according to a report by Bhaskar English. While the Labour Department issued directives for payments and bonuses, many workers in various departments remain unpaid.
The situation is most severe for staff in the Health, School Education, and Higher Education departments. Some employees in the Health Department have reportedly gone four to six months without pay, while over 6,000 vocational teachers in the School Education Department are also awaiting salaries.
Vasudev Sharma, state president of the All Department Outsource, Temporary Employees Front, said the government created the ROMS portal to track employee details. The Finance Department established an October 31 deadline for departments to upload this data, with instructions that salaries could be withheld if departments missed the cutoff.
Manoj Bhargava, state convener of the Morcha, alleged that companies connected to relatives or influential leaders and ministers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh are awarded contracts to supply workers in the state. He claimed these companies fail to pay salaries on time after securing contracts.
Under existing rules, contractors must pay employees from their own funds if government payments are delayed for three months, later adjusting the amount. Employee organisations allege that workers are suffering due to the negligence of both contractors and department heads.