Amid frequent power outages during the peak summer season, residents are facing a double whammy as several consumer services at Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) offices remain disrupted due to the indefinite strike by outsourced employees posted at Nodal Complaint Centres (NCCs), Customer Relationship Centres (CRCs), stores and metering labs since June 16.
Residents visiting the PSPCL offices to lodge complaints related to power outage or avail routine services are encountering long delays and inconvenience, with many offices are functioning with minimal staff.
The strike has adversely affected the corporation’s complaint redressal mechanism, particularly at a time when electricity demand has surged.
Under the existing system, complaints registered through the 1912 helpline are routed to employees at NCCs, who verify them and assign them to the linemen concerned or field staff based on the feeder or service area.
With NCC employees on strike, this crucial coordination process has been affected, resulting in delays in complaint disposal and, in many cases, restoration of power supply.
While PSPCL officials maintain that essential consumer services are continuing through regular employees, sources said many of them are not trained to handle specialised consumer service operations such as complaint registration, service request processing and complaint allocation. This has slowed service delivery and increased the workload on the available staff.
The outsourced employees launched the indefinite strike, alleging that the government and PSPCL management failed to honour their assurance of bringing all outsourced workers under direct contract.
Kuljit Singh, state president of the Outsource Employees Federation Punjab (PSPCL), said, “Last year, the PSPCL Board of Directors agreed to absorb all outsourced employees under direct contract. However, on May 9, the decision covered only CHB workers, leaving rest of them out of its ambit."
Following a protest from May 21 to 24, the federation claimed that Power Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond assured its representatives on May 24 that the remaining outsourced employees would also be brought under direct contract by June 15.
“When the deadline passed without implementation despite repeated assurances, we had no option but to launch an indefinite strike," Singh added.
The union is now looking towards the Cabinet meeting scheduled for July 1, hoping the issue will be resolved. Until then, it has maintained that the strike will continue.
Gulshan Chutani, Deputy Chief Engineer, PSPCL said, “We have deployed regular staff to handle consumer services. However, they are not adequately trained to assign or close complaints with the same level of efficiency. There is a gap, but we are managing the situation."
