The Kerala ICPS Employees’ Union has warned of an indefinite strike by employees working in the child protection sector from May 15 if the State government does not take a favourable decision on their demands by then.
The union has written to the Chief Minister, Minister for Finance, Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister, WCD Secretary and Director, and the Labour Commissioner, seeking restoration of their pay and minimum wages.
The employees staged a Secretariat dharna recently. Nearly 250 contract employees of the State Child Protection Society, set up under the Juvenile Justice Act, participated in the dharna. The employees said they were forced into staging the protest, as their salaries, which were not much as they were on contract in any case, had been slashed by nearly half since September last year. Many of them were not even drawing minimum wages, as inordinate delays in contract renewal forced them to work on daily wages in the interim. They were also denied leave benefits. Without travel allowance, they had to go to the field tapping into their meagre pay.
In their letter to Minister for Women and Child Development, they pointed out that safety and rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection, those in conflict with law, survivors of child sexual abuse, adoption and foster care procedures, and activities of the juvenile justice boards, child welfare committees, and child rights commission, were supported by them. However, the government was denying the rights of those who worked to protect the rights of vulnerable children.
Talks had been held at the WCD Director, Secretary, and the Ministerial levels, but to no avail. If no decision was taken on their demands by the government by May 14, they would go on an indefinite strike under the CITU banner the next day, thus bringing the child protection sector to a standstill, the employees’ union wrote to the Minister, seeking her urgent intervention in addressing their demands.
