Key Takeaways:

• Daily-wage workers have launched a protest at the Bagmati Irrigation Project
• Demands include social security, service benefits and labour rights
• Workers plan office closures and an indefinite strike if talks fail
• Protest has already begun affecting regular project operations

SARLAHI, NOVEMBER 3 Daily-wage workers at the Bagmati Irrigation Project have threatened to shut down offices and halt work unless authorities address longstanding demands for service benefits, social security and labour protections. The workers, employed at the project's Karmaya office, have begun a phased protest programme after submitting a five-point memorandum to project management. They say the agitation has already started affecting regular project operations. Among their key demands are guaranteed service benefits and social security coverage, removal of age restrictions imposed on daily-wage workers, implementation of recommendations made by a government committee on workers' benefits, and inclusion in the Social Security Fund. The workers are also seeking festival allowances, uniform allowances and cost-of-living adjustments, arguing that they have been denied benefits available to other categories of employees. As part of the first phase of the protest, workers have been staging daily sit-ins while wearing black armbands. Under the announced programme, they plan to lock the project's main entrance from Mangsir 1 to 7 and shut both the vehicle gate and office entrance from Mangsir 8 to 13. Suraj Paswan, coordinator of the Daily-Wage Workers' Struggle Committee, said workers would launch an indefinite work stoppage from Mangsir 14 if their demands remain unaddressed. He said employees would continue operating the headworks barrage gates to ensure water flow is not disrupted, but all other work would cease. The workers have also demanded revisions to irrigation norms issued on Kartik 11 and the implementation of a report prepared by a nine-member committee on labour benefits that was forwarded to the Ministry of Irrigation through the Department of Irrigation.