MUMBAI: Several hundreds contractual workers of the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC), which falls under the ministry of information and broadcasting yesterday protested in New Delhi. They were demanding increase in the duration of their contract period as well as wage hike.

However, a ministry official said the demands raised by EMMC employees were "not new, and they are being taken up with top priority" by the ministry.

In a memorandum to the information and broadcasting minister Venkaiah Naidu, the employees demanded raise in their salaries alleging that they had not got any hike in the last three years while the Central government employees were getting wages as per 7th Pay Commission recommendations. They also claimed that a majority of them had working there for around 7-8 years.

The protesters, demonstrating outside the Shastri Bhawan, said that they were employed on contractual basis for three months. For the last three times, they claimed, that they were assessed on the basis of a written test while, earlier it was done on the basis of work. The employees said the workers in similar media organisations such as Doordarshan News were employed on a year's contract, and were judged on the basis of work.