There is nothing new in the continuing wage woes of daily rated workers engaged from time to time by the successive popular governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state but equally irrefutable fact is that there is no end to unresolved wage issues of the daily rated workers working in different department not for years but even for more than two decades also. Protests for resolution of wage issues of the daily rated workers by the employee associations like Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) and Employees Joint Consultative Committee (EJCC) were witnessed day in and day out during the reigns of the previous governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and such protests by the Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) for resolution of the wage demands of daily reported workers are reported again now on weekly basis since last more than a month. Weekly protests by daily rated workers under the banner of EJAC for the resolution of their wage demands deserves immediate attention of the government in view of the increasing joblessness triggered by back to back two covid lockdowns during last two years of pandemic. Above all the issue is not just of the wage issues of one or few hundreds of daily rated workers but of 61000 workers working as daily workers for years and even decades together in different departments of the government. Allowing continuation of the daily rate workers engaged by previous popular governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir explicitly and implicitly conveys a message that even the incumbent government does not intend to either challenge the engagement of such daily rated workers or disengage their engagement for certain genuine and legitimate reasons. So while the government does not plan and propose to even disengage these daily rated workers and instead allows them to continue the way they were allowed to continue by the previous governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state, the unprecedented delays in the payment of wages to them should not become a cause for the weekly protests at Press Enclave Srinagar and at similar venue in Jammu the winter capital.
Absolutely true it is that leaders who cry for the disbursement of the wages to such daily rated workers are themselves responsible for their sufferings and miseries not addressed by the governments headed by them for decades together but that does not reduce the scope for resolution of their wage demands by any standards of understandabilities under the present dispensation . Better late than never and it would be in the interests of the justice if the wage issues of more than sixty thousand daily rated workers are resolved once for ever to end their several decades old phase of exploitation by the vested interests claiming to be the protectors of their wage rights.
Ultimately regularisation by all standards of understandabilities seems to be the only final solution to wage demands of the daily rated workers working in different department for years and even decades together. Absolutely true it is that leaders who cry for the disbursement of the wages to such daily rated workers are themselves responsible for their sufferings and miseries not addressed by the governments headed by them for decades together but that does not reduce the scope for resolution of their wage demands by any standards of understandabilities under the present dispensation. Better late than never and it would be in the interests of the justice if the wage issues of more than sixty thousand daily rated workers are resolved once for ever to end their several decades old phase of exploitation by the vested interests claiming to be the protectors of their wage rights.
