VASCO
The week-long strike of Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) workers was called off on Saturday evening, with the workers expected to start work from Sunday without taking leave and the MMC will be fully functional from Monday.
The strike was called off after Urban Development Minister Milind Naik approved their demands when he met MMC union leaders and the Director of Municipal Administration in Panaji on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking to reporters, Naik said the strike need not have taken place if the aggrieved workers and their union had met him prior to the strike and explained their grievances.
“The workers were on strike for a week and they had many genuine demands. Since the last few days, the Secretary Tariq Thomas, DMA Gurudas Pilarnekar and Administrator Raju Gawas were in continuous talks and we also spoke to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on the issue. We had a three-hour joint meeting with the MMC union leaders. We will clear their payments immediately and ensure that their future salaries are released on time.”
“Besides, this we have also addressed their other grievances and recorded the minutes of the meeting. They have agreed to resume work from tomorrow itself, being a Sunday, and clear the accumulated garbage in the municipality,” said Naik.
MMC Union leader Anthony Lobo expressed happiness that their issues were resolved. “Our salaries will be cleared by Thursday and the salary for February will be cleared by the month end.”
“We were assured that the salary reserve fund also will be made available. Our other small demands of DA and Uniform allowance will be cleared within three months in phases,” said Lobo.
“The issue of our instalments being deducted will also be resolved and we have been assured that we will get full payments without deduction and that, they will not touch our PF Funds and Salary Reserve Funds,” Lobo added.
