Sanitation staff protest move to stop 10% increment

Hundreds of sanitation workers today went on a strike against the Shimla Municipal Corporation against its decision to the stop the 10% annual increment on salary that had been consistently granted over the past 10 years.

Sanitation workers, garbage collectors, supervisors and road sweeping staff of the SEHB Society, affiliated with the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), staged a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner office and demanded the corporation to immediately resume the increment.

Condemning the corporation for halting the salary hike, Vijender Mehra, state president, CITU, said the corporation was violating the bylaws of the SEHB Society. Criticising the MC decision to spend Rs 2.5 crore on QR code facility for property mapping, he said those funds could instead be used to hire 150 additional sanitation workers or provide Rs 15,000 annual bonus to all SEHB and outsourced workers for three years.

Mehra said the workers had also been seeking regularisation and Rs 26,000 monthly wages, as per the 15th Indian Labour Conference, Supreme Court rulings in 1992 and 2016 and 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

He warned that the workers will continue to strike work till their demands are met.

The protesting workers are also demanding overtime pay for additional duties, legal provision of 39 annual leave days, inclusion of outsourced workers under SEHB’s direct administration, timely disbursement of salaries, payment of pending EPF and a structured promotion policy for them.