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Garbage piles up
Highlights
Garbage Piles Up, GHMC Sanitation Workers, Contract Employees, GHMC Striking Employees. With demand of Rs 16,500 as minimum pay and Rs 5 lakh accident cover, GHMC sanitation workers’ strike is poised for a showdown. Talks on Day 2 ended in impasse.
With demand of Rs 16,500 as minimum pay and Rs 5 lakh accident cover, GHMC sanitation workers’ strike is poised for a showdown. Talks on Day 2 ended in impasse.
Nearly 25,000 contract employees and outsourced labour of the GHMC sanitation wing launched a strike on Monday. The striking employees’ unions have made it clear that that they would not resume duties until all their demands are met.
Among other things, the employees of the sanitation wing are demanding an increase in minimum salary to Rs 16,500 (from Rs 8000 approximately) and accident cover of Rs 5 lakh. The employees, with the support of almost all the unions, held a ‘Maha Samme’ at GHMC’s main office on Tuesday.
Members of the 14 major unions on Tuesday took out a rally from the Sundarayya Park, expressing their solidarity with the cause of employees and demanding an increase in the basic pay to Rs 16,500 and also an increase in the insurance sum from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for the employees who work in the nights cleaning the streets and nalas.
The sanitation wing employees have ceased to do discharge their basic responsibility with the result that all the streets in GHMC limits are in a complete mess and stinking, with overflowing garbage bins and drains. The city generates normally 3,800 tonnes of garbage per day.
A senior official commented that even if the strike is called off by Tuesday night, the employees would have to work on a war footing to clear the existing piles of garbage. According to him, it might take a minimum of 3-4 days just to clear the accumulated garbage.
At present, there are 14 employees’ unions registered with the GHMC. Although only some of the unions took part in the dharna held on Monday, the response on Tuesday suggests that the protests have now turned into an all-union strike.
In March 2013, contract and outsourced employees were on prolonged dharna that lasted 108 days. The dharna was called off after Maheedhar Reddy, Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD), promised to meet their demands. The demands concerning pay and insurance were put on hold in March.
The employees were promised that their demands would be met by August 31. Now, that process has been postponed to October 22. The employees are livid that powers that be keep on postponing the date.
U Gopal, president, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Employees Union (GHMEU), said, “We have been called for talks with the authorities, but till date they have not acknowledged all of our demands. We have put forth a demand for a hike in basic pay for all the contract labourers to Rs 16,500 and even a hike in the accidental insurance claim for all the people who work in the nights.”
Udhari Gopal sent a letter to all the labour unions who in turn have made a representation to the Commissioner, GHMC, as well as the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development stating, “It is a step motherly attitude shown to the contract labourers and employees. They have been serving for close to 15 years with the GHMC and they have become too old to work in any other organisation. Henceforth, the only option would be to treat them as permanent employees to keep the work force going.”
K Shankar, president, Bhagyanagar Municipal Employees Union, while concurring with the above, added: “We were called for talks, but they have not taken our demands into consideration. We have asked all our employees to boycott all their duties. A GO was passed three years ago, yet there has been no increment in the salaries of employees and workers who are living in pathetic conditions with no medical assistance or insurance.”
Tipparthi Yadaiah, president of GHMC Employees and Workers Union, says, “It is an all-union boycott today. We want the authorities to give the outsourced employees the facilities that the regular employees have like PFO, EPFO, housing and other amenities. These employees work day and night cleaning the nalas. The regular employees are given soaps, oils and clothing for such duties, while outsourced employees are completely ignored. We want them to have the same facilities as the regular employees.”
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