2 weeks on, Gurgaon’s sanitation workers back to work but discontent remains

On Wednesday, they called off the protests after the MCG assured them that the demands would be looked into, with the instruction that the garbage be picked within three days. As the deadline expires Sunday, the workers still have a mountain of garbage to clear and are yet to get any clarity on how their demands would be met.

“We will wait for another 15 days. If they don’t agree to our demands, we will take out another protest,” said Devi.

Over 6,000 sanitation workers, most of them contractual and employed with the civic body through outsourced agencies, had stopped cleaning streets and residential areas last month, prompting the MCG to file three complaints against them with the police. Though the MCG has not taken any further action yet, the workers are far from pacified.

“We had to start a protest because we were being ignored by the corporation. Many employees who have been working here for years should be regularised and brought under the corporation roll; contractors lay off people as per their whims,” said Basant Kumar, a member of Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh.

Kumar said the workers were compelled to call a strike after a protest they sat on February 14 during lunch hours “without disrupting their work” went unheard.

Kumar said the workers had sent out a notice on May 15 listing their demands and warning that a protest will be held on May 22 if they were not met. “Since there was no response, our protest also became an indefinite strike,” Kumar said.

Until last year, the sanitation workers in Gurgaon would start their day at 7 am and finish at 5pm. After a protest, said Kumar, the work hours were brought down to eight: 8 am to 4 pm. “This time, we are protesting for proper toilets, water ATMs, safety equipment, PF, regularisation of services and an end to contractual system, and salaries on time,” he added.

Seema (41) from Jhajjar, who has been working for six years as a sanitation worker and earns around Rs 16,000, which includes an allowance for soaps and mustard oil along with cycle allowance and an amount for brooms, said she sits in a room allotted for guards in Pocket A of Sector 21, and uses the toilet meant for men. “There are no washrooms for women in the area. Even parks are not safe when we look for a space to rest; I have to stay up like this every day. We have been demanding toilets and water ATMs for several months now. Without providing basic facilities, people expect us to work like machines. RWA presidents have been calling me for two days asking to expedite work,” she added.

Meanwhile, Naresh Kumar, Joint Commissioner, MCG, said that safety equipment has always been provided to the workers from time to time. A tender has been floated for all the equipment for the next period, he said. He said that the corporation is in talks regarding the regularisation of employees on its roll. A committee has been formed, with the Joint Commissioner as a member, to discuss the process of regularisation of the workers left out in the 2019 exercise. “It will be done based on 2018 regulations. We have taken cognizance of demands that come under the Commissioner’s jurisdiction, and the rest of the issues have been raised for the Haryana government to resolve. Issues surrounding PF surface because of inconsistencies around the age and date of birth of workers. We are discussing the concerns,” he said.