Dehradun City breathing the festive spirit a day before Diwali, ONGC contractual employees staged a stir on Tuesday demanding their monthly salaries and Diwali bonus.
Irked over delay in the clearance of their dues with Diwali upon them, scores of employees of Gurgaon-based company 'Facility Management' protested under the banner of ONGC Contractual Employees' Union around 10 am on Tuesday at Kishannagar near Tel Bhawan's office. They staged a sit-in and raised slogans against the company officials.
According to the protesters, the company is delaying clearance of salary each month. This month, they waited till November 9, but the officials sitting on it despite assurance of prompt clearance had led them to the path of agitation to demand their dues, said one of the protestors. However, the stir was withdrawn in the evening as the company cleared the salaries. Bonus is yet to be paid though, said the agitators, adding that the management assured them of clearance of bonus once the nationalized banks open after the Diwali is over.
However, the company - Facility Management- manager Jyoti Semwal claimed that they had failed to arrange the salary on time because of ONGC officials having released the company's fund late by a few days. Once the funds were received the salaries were cleared on Tuesday evening, he said.
Semwal further said that normally the employees are given their salary on seventh of each month.
A union member Ramesh Nautiyal said that around 700 employees are working on contractual basis with ONGC. They have been working as housekeepers, mechanics and others. "Diwali approaching, we were in gloomy mood as our salary was yet to be cleared," he said.