Ludhiana: The Sewa Kendra Employees Union Punjab has announced a statewide agitation, threatening an indefinite strike if pending salaries are not cleared within seven days. To formalise the protest road map, the union has convened a state-level mega meeting on June 28 in Mohali, which will see massive participation from data entry operators, staff members, and security guards from across Punjab’s various districts.District president Satnam Lehal stated that the primary trigger for the agitation is the non-payment of security guards, who have not received their wages for the last three months despite performing round-the-clock duties. Lehal alleged that repeated assurances by the private firm responsible for deploying the guards have failed to translate into actual payments.Highlighting the issue, Lehal said, “The guards are working day and night, but their salaries have remained pending for three months. Many of them are finding it difficult to manage household expenses and support their families.” The union also flagged that safai karamcharis are paid an unsustainable wage of just ₹800 per month. On this, Lehal asked, “We have been raising the issue that they should be paid wages according to labour norms. How it is possible to survive in this amount?”Beyond immediate wage delays, the June 28 meeting will tackle the low base pay of core staff members, who receive around ₹10,000 a month without any appraisal hike for the past ten years. The union noted that staff are facing severe operational burnout due to an increasing citizen workload coupled with highly inadequate staffing levels across counters.The planned escalation comes directly on the heels of a days-long strike by staff members that heavily disrupted municipal public services earlier this month. Issuing a final warning to both the company management and the state govt, Satnam Singh stated that if the pending salaries of the security guards are not released within seven days, the union would be left with no choice but to launch an indefinite, state-wide shutdown.
