Claim they are being forced to sign blank forms
Daily wage workers have set a 15-day deadline for the Margao Municipal Council to act on their demands.
MARGAO
Around 24 daily wage workers of the Margao Municipal Council, eligible for regularisation under the Daily Wages (Grant of Temporary Status) Scheme, 2025, have alleged that the civic body is compelling them to sign blank application forms for the scheme.
In a signed representation, the daily wage workers pointed out that the Council’s actions in compelling them to sign blank application forms for the 2025 Scheme constitute a flagrant violation of their fundamental rights and established principles of service jurisprudence.
Stating that the Council is now pressurising them to sign application forms for the newly introduced 2025 Scheme, the workers maintained that this scheme is not a step towards regularisation but a formalisation of their temporary status.
“Its application form contains a declaration that is tantamount to a forced waiver of our legal and constitutional rights to claim anything beyond the limited benefits of the scheme itself. This is exploiting temporary labour for permanent work—an unfair labour practice,” they maintained.
That’s not all. Some of the workers further alleged that the civic body has refused to return the signed forms when asked, raising suspicions of malpractice.
Demanding that the Margao Municipal Council immediately and unconditionally cease and abstain from compelling or persuading any of the undersigned workmen and others to sign the application forms for the “Daily Wages (Grant of Temporary Status) Scheme, 2025,” the workers said, “The Council must, without any further delay, initiate a process to regularise the services of the 29 undersigned workmen against our respective posts, in recognition of our long years of continuous service in perennial roles, as mandated by the law laid down in 'Jaggo vs Union of India'.”
They added: “Upon regularisation, we must be granted all attendant and consequential benefits, including fixation of pay in the regular pay scale, grant of allowances (DA, HRA, etc.), seniority from the appropriate date, and inclusion in pensionary/provident fund schemes, as are available to other permanent employees of the Council.”
Setting a 15-day deadline for the Council to resolve their issue, the workers have threatened to go to court should the Council fail to act upon their legitimate demands or continue its coercive attempts to force them into the 2025 Scheme.
