the goan I network
MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council witnessed an uproar after daily wage workers employed for garbage collection and transportation went on a flash strike over the delay by the administration to issue an order engaging them for work and the failure to extend the Rs 500 wage.
Daily wage workers employed on roads as part of solid waste management also joined the garbage workers demanding Rs 500 wages as against the present daily wage of Rs 323.
What prompted the daily wage garbage workers to go on a flash strike is not just the 10-day delay on part of the municipality to issue the order engaging them for work, but the injury their co-worker sustained after he fell down from a garbage truck at Sonsodo on Sunday, as they raised questions about their safety and security in the absence of the MMC order.
As the workers struck worker, MMC councillors were huddled with Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai, Vice-chairperson Tito Cardozo and Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes as they discussed the delay on the part of the administration to issue the order engaging the garbage workers.
Even as the daily wage workers descended in the corridors of the municipal body, the Chairperson demanded to know from the sanitary section why the order engaging the daily wage workers was not issued till date, adding that the administration should ensure that the order is issued at the beginning of the month in the future.
After much discussions, the Chairperson invited the daily wage workers inside her chamber and promised them that the civic body would always stand by them. When the workers pointed out that some of them have completed more than 10-12 years of service and demanded to know whether there's any hope for regularization of their services, the Chairperson said the council has already adopted a resolution in favour of regularization of their services, adding that the issue is
now pending at the government level.
She made an appeal to the workers to resume work, saying the municipality will issue the order engaging them for work today itself with a new wage of Rs 500 per day. Babita also informed the workers that she and the CO have been in touch with the Hospicio authorities to ensure that the injured daily wage worker receives all medical attention from the hospital.
CO Johnson told The Goan that the council has issued the order to the 55 daily wage workers with a daily wage of Rs 500.
Former MMC Chairperson Savio Coutinho, who took up cudgels for the daily wage garbage workers, said the workers are justified in resorting to a flash strike, since the civic body had discriminated against them while offering Rs 500 wage for workers engaged by private contractor Bapu Environmental Services. "Injustice has been done to these workers, not just by delaying in issuing the order, but the civic body took long time to extend the Rs 500 wage to these workers," he added.
