Puri: The contractual employees of two devotee shelter houses managed by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Wednesday held a demonstration here to press for their demands.
The agitating employees gheraoed the SJTA office and submitted a memorandum to the SJTA chief administrator.
The agitators claimed that the SJTA has engaged a private agency to manage day-today functioning of two devotee shelter houses—Nilachal Bhakta Niwas and Gundicha Bhakta Niwas—in the Holy City.
The private agency has hired several people on contractual basis to manage the two shelter houses. “The private agency does not pay the basic minimum remuneration to the contractual employees. Moreover, it is yet to provide EPF and ESI facilities to the employees,” said the memorandum.
The agitators claimed that they had raised their grievances with the SJTA and Labour department January 17 but to no avail.
The contractual employees urged the SJTA to regularise their jobs and pay them the basic minimum remuneration as per the guidelines laid down by the state government.
“The employees of the two shelter houses should be categorised as per their skills and paid remunerations accordingly. Moreover, the temple administration should provide EPF and ESI facilities to the employees,” the memorandum said.
Moreover, the agitators sought provisions of holidays and annual bonus for them.
