Plea for higher wages to Meghalaya workers

A REPORTER
SHILLONG, April 26: The Khun Hynniewtrep tiol Awakening Movement (KHM)’s youth wing on Tuesday urged State Labour Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh to upgrade those labourers working for more than ten years as highly skilled. Speaking to newsmen here on Tuesday, Thomas Passah president of KHM youth wing said, “The labourers have been categorized into four categories—unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled—but when we visited various departments of the state government we found that there are people who have been working for more than 20 years and are still getting only Rs. 170 which is normally given to unskilled labours.” He informed that the state government issued notification in the past which states that those people working for five years and below are considered as unskilled, five years above as semi-skilled, 10 years below skilled and 10 years above as highly skilled  “We have requested the Labour Minister to take up the matter and immediately upgrade those people working for the past 20 years as highly skilled,” he said adding if there are people working for 10 years or more then the government should provide training to them and upgrade the laborers  into highly skilled.