Garbage strike called off

PUNE, Dec 17: The daily wage workers of the Pune Municipal Corporation's PMC garbage collection machinery called off their strike on Th...

PUNE, Dec 17: The daily wage workers of the Pune Municipal Corporation8217;s PMC garbage collection machinery called off their strike on Thursday afternoon following the civic administration8217;s assurance to meet their various demands. Ninety vacant posts of Class IV employees in the health department will be filled from among the daily wage workers as per the seniority list before the year end.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor held a meeting with the General Secretary of the PMC Employees Union Appasaheb Bhosale, Joint Secretary Mukta Manohar and others arriving at a compromise. Nearly 3000 labourers who have no official union continued the strike to press their demand for a revision in the pay scales and permanency in service.

One of their demands include drawing 100 per cent instead of the current 80 per cent of the basic pay and dearness allowance paid to the regular permanent employee. While Kapoor admitted that their demand for an increase in pay scales was acceptable, he said the issue did not pertain merely to the conservancy staff. The administration assured the delegation to collect information regarding the financial implications of the proposal within a fortnight before conceding it.

Labour Welfare Officer, PMC, Nandkishore Jagtap who was also present at the meeting said the second shift personnel had started garbage lifting operations once it was announced that the strike had been called off. The administration also assured to expedite and take necessary follow-up action to get the green signal from the State Government towards the creation of 450 new posts for Class IV employees in the conservancy department. The general body of the PMC has already sanctioned the creation of these posts nearly one and a half years ago. It only requires the State Government8217;s nod.

There are 947 permanent employees in the conservancy section and 1100 in the santitation section of the health department. The number of daily wage workers in these sections too amount to 3,000, Jagtap said. Meanwhile Kapoor will head the committee set up to identify the number of personnel required for garbage collection in the wake of the merger of 38 villages with the PMC. The committee will submit its report within two months.