MARGAO
The writ petition filed by the beleaguered Margao Municipal daily wage workers will come up for hearing before the High Court on January 11, 2021.
The High Court has issued notices to the respondents, including the Margao Municipal Council and the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) to file their reply by January 4.
The 14 Margao Municipal daily wage workers have filed the writ petition in the High Court challenging the order of the Additional Director of Urban Development, directing the Margao Municipal Council to keep their regularisation order in abeyance.
The petitioners have further challenged the order dated June 10, 2020 passed by the Margao Municipal Council and office memorandum dated November 4, 2020 issued by the MMC to this effect.
A glance at the chronology of events showed that the petitioners were appointed as daily wages with the MMC from 2001 onwards and paid on monthly basis.
In 2006, around 39 workers similarly situated with the petitioners were regularised.
On May 8, 2014, the Margao Municipal Council agreed to regularise the workers as per a settlement under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. In furtherance to the settlement, the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) was convened on July 23, 2019 to undertake regularisation. The Council finally took the decision to regularise the petitioners on December 24, 2019.
The orders of appointment were issued to the workers by the MMC on March 2, 2010, only to receive directions from the Additional Director of Urban Development to keep the order in abeyance on April 23.
Two months later, the Council finally decided to keep the appointment orders in abeyance, triggering protests by the workers, before they finally knocked the doors of the High Court for justice.
