MARGAO
A group of Margao Municipal Council daily wage workers has knocked on the doors of the High Court with a plea to direct the respondents, including the civic body and the Director of Municipal Administration to implement and honour the appointment orders dated March 2, 2020.
In the writ petition, the 12 daily wage workers prayed to the court to quash the decision of the respondents to keep the appointment orders of the petitioner in abeyance vide orders dated 23-04-2020 and 10-06-2020.
The workers further prayed to the court to stay the operation of the orders issued by the respondents pending the decision in the present matter and to restrain the authorities from filling up the current vacancies to the prejudice of the petitioners during the pendency of this petition.
These daily wage workers have been working as garbage collectors and road workers with the MMC since the last many years. All the petitioners were regularized on 02-03-2020 by the council. The said regularization was done under the prevailing government circulars as well as a settlement before the Labour Commissioner under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
They claimed that the Additional Director, Urban Development, however, has stayed the valid and legal exercise of regularization by stating that since no advertisements have been issued for the posts the regularization is to be kept in abeyance. They submitted before the High Court that the process of regularization is under the prevailing circulars of the government and is distinct and different from the process of fresh recruitment. The latter requires advertisement but the former is exclusively governed by the circulars, they submitted. Additionally, they submitted that the plight of the petitioners is a matter of serious concern as the principle of equal pay for equal work is not being observed by the council.
