An indefinite strike by outsourced employees at Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has severely affected consumer services since June 16, compounding the woes of residents already grappling with frequent power outages during peak summer. The strike, involving workers at Nodal Complaint Centres (NCCs), Customer Relationship Centres (CRCs), stores, and metering labs, has led to long delays and inconvenience for residents visiting PSPCL offices to lodge complaints or avail routine services.
Strike Cripples Complaint Redressal Mechanism
Under the normal system, complaints registered through the 1912 helpline are routed to NCC employees, who verify them and assign them to linemen or field staff based on the feeder or service area. With NCC employees on strike, this critical coordination process has been disrupted, resulting in delays in complaint disposal and, in many cases, restoration of power supply. The strike has particularly hit the corporation's complaint redressal mechanism at a time when electricity demand has surged due to the summer heat.
While PSPCL officials maintain that essential consumer services are continuing through regular employees, sources indicate that many of these regular staff 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 available staff.
Union Demands Direct Contract for All Outsourced Workers
The outsourced employees launched the indefinite strike after alleging that the government and PSPCL management failed to honour their assurance of bringing all outsourced workers under direct contract. According to Kuljit Singh, state president of the Outsource Employees Federation Punjab (PSPCL), the PSPCL Board of Directors had agreed last year to absorb all outsourced employees under direct contract. However, a decision on May 9 covered only CHB workers, leaving the rest 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, the union had no option but to launch an indefinite strike, Singh added.
Outcome Awaited from July 1 Cabinet Meeting
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. The disruption has left many residents frustrated, as power outages persist and complaint resolution remains sluggish.
Gulshan Chutani, Deputy Chief Engineer, PSPCL, acknowledged the gap in service efficiency, stating, "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."
