Five Lakh Outsourced Telangana Govt Staff Face Months of Salary Dues

Hyderabad: Approximately five hundred thousand employees working through subcontracted companies in various departments of the state government have not received salaries for several months, leading to protests and demonstrations.

Employees in some departments, such as Bhu Bharati, the state government’s flagship land records management initiative, have a backlog of 16 months. Mission Bhagiratha has not received salary even once in the current financial year.

Outsourced election operators under the revenue department, who play a key role in the upcoming gram panchayat elections, have not received salaries for at least six months. Employees working in the irrigation department have not been paid their salaries for three months, the BC welfare department has not been paid for seven months and the land acquisition department has not been paid for nine months. Three to five months salary delays have become routine in many other departments.

A female employee working in the revenue department in the city, on the condition of anonymity, said, “I have been working here for 13 years, but I have never encountered such a situation. Our salaries are delayed for at least 6 months. Every month has become a struggle because we cannot pay the rent and support our family.”

On 19 November, services at the Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (Fever Hospital) in Nallakunta were affected as casual workers protested and walked off the job; their salaries were delayed for four months. On November 20, employees of the National Health Mission surrounded the directorate, demanding payment of their three months’ salaries.

Hundreds of contract and outsourced staff demanded the immediate release of pending wages. They expressed disappointment that while staff were regularized and salaries increased in some states, Telangana could not even provide payments on time. Employees called on the government to resolve the issue without further delay.

According to revenue department records, the state has 5,21,692 regular employees and 4,93,820 temporary employees. Panchayat raj department has the highest number of temporary workers at 94,179, followed by secondary education department at 78,146 and MA&UD at 62,913.

Following the deferment of salaries, outsourcing employees questioned the need to work through agencies, despite the government already promising to set up a company.

“If this continues, I fear that outsourcing employees may resort to extreme steps like committing suicide due to lack of salary or inability to pay house rent, child fees or loans. When the government can help gig workers by setting up a board, why not have a commissionerate for us, which has also been promised? We are losing close to 5,000 per month in commissions to these agencies. We hope Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy understands the grievances of employees arising from outsourcing,” he said. Lakshmaiah Puli is the state president of Outsourcing Employees JAC.

The salary of outsourced employees ranges from Rs 13,611 to Rs 20,750. Lakshmaiah, who recently submitted a representation to the government, claims that if the government decides to abolish the agencies, employees will get salaries ranging from Rs 17,601 to Rs 26,358.

Acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, a labor ministry official said this was an important policy decision that had to be taken by the government. “Yes, Andhra Pradesh has set up a company to solve this problem. But there is no progress in this direction in Telangana. The government needs to take a call as this is an important policy decision,” said a senior official of the ministry.