‘BMC is yet to honour SC’s 2017 judgment on contract workers’

Contract workers started being recruited in the solid waste management department of the BMC by the beginning of 90s. Cities were growing and garbage was being generated. So instead of recruiting permanent workers, contract workers were taken on board. Not a single labour law such as eight-hour duty, weekly off, bonus, minimum wage, insurance was followed. Around 1996, we decided to start working under the horrible conditions in which these contract labourers were working. We started from Deonar dumping ground. Contract workers did not even have water to drink. We started speaking to them. But they were given money on trip basis so they had no time to stop and talk to us. So we travelled in that garbage truck for next 10 months. The contractors were minting money while giving almost nothing to workers.

What did you realise while talking to them?

When we used to tell them about eight-hours duty rule, they told us it was impossible to work so less that they would get only Rs 60 per day. They had accepted that they won’t get any benefits. We first started working on their health. A list of around 1,000 workers was prepared highlighting health problems such as skin and fungal problem, eye irritation, spinal cord problems. Our first hunger strike was in 1997, which was the 50th year of Indian Independence, for the right of water to these workers. The success of this agitation gave these workers hope.

When did you first approach the court?

In 1997, we filed a case in Bombay High Court as Kachara Vahtuk Sharmila Sangh. After we won, BMC went to Supreme Court in 1999 from where we were sent to the Industrial Tribunal in 2001 and all 1,240 workers were made permanent through out-of-court settlement in 2003.

How did it impact contract worker system?

This led to what became known as Hyderabad Pattern. A formula was devised as per which nomenclature was changed to avoid making contract workers permanent. Contractors were termed as NGOs, contract worker was termed as volunteer, wages or salaries was called honorarium. To avoid implementation of labour laws, instead of 20, only 18 workers were to be hired from each contractor. Contract period was made of 210 days instead of 240. Mumbai saw appointment of around 5,000 workers under this. From 2004, we started uniting them and again approached the court in 2007 in Industrial Tribunal. It went on till 2014 where we won.