Mumbai: All 4,200 engineers of the BMC have called a strike to press for their demands, including a seven-hour workday and deduction of pay due to the biometric attendance system.
The BMC Engineers Joint Action Committee on Monday announced they will intensify their protest and go on an indefinite strike from March 22 in tandem with 1.4 lakh civic employees if the biometric attendance-linked salary deductions are not halted. The engineers claim there is no proper biometric infrastructure in place.
Sukhdev Kashid of the Municipal Engineers Association said, “Civic engineers go for demolitions, attend court cases and do extensive field work for over 10-12 hours every day, way beyond their scheduled seven working hours and a break of two.5 hours. So, it’s not fair to deduct salaries based on the biometric attendance system.”
While Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta has agreed to roll back their salary deductions, engineers are upset that their casual leave and other leave stand deducted despite working through the month.
“Instead of handling work of just Rs. 5,000, civic engineers handle work to the extent of Rs. 50,000 due to large scale vacancies in the BMC,” said Sainath Rajyadaksha of the engineers union. Their next course of action will be decided in a meeting on March 15.
