The city on Monday saw protests by the Kachra Vahatuk Shramic Sangh (KVSS), Mathadi Kamgar Union (manual workers), and the Marathi Kamgar Sena (MKS).
The KVSS organised a hunger strike against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) failure to grant permanent jobs to 1,409 workers of the 1,600 verified workers, on the basis of Aadhaar technicalities.
In 2007, the Sangh had taken the matter to the industrial tribunal, which on October 13, 2014, ruled in its favour. The BMC moved the Bombay High Court, which also ruled in the Sangh’s favour in December 2016.
The civic body then approached the Supreme Court, which on April 7, 2017, upheld the judgement of the HC. “This is a question of our lives. We must receive what we are owed,” Sunil Apte, an worker, said.
A three-member committee consisting of union representative Milind Ranade, an investigative officer appointed by the industrial tribunal, and a BMC representative, verified 1,600 workers eligible for arrears.
“It has been a 12-year struggle, and now they are refusing to fulfil the requirement even though the SC has ruled that the Aadhaar should not be a barrier in receiving social security benefits,” Mr. Ranade, general secretary, KVSS, said.
According to the protesters, the civic body has refused to pay arrears, amounting to ₹3.6 lakh if calculated from 2014, and approximately ₹7 lakh if calculated from 2007, stating that the names of 1,409 workers in the apex court list do not match with their names on Aadhaar cards.
Retrenchment opposed
In the second incident, members of the Mathadi Kamgar Union, who have been fighting for the reinstatement of 87 workers fired from a glass factory in Vadavali village, on December 17, 2015, sat on a hunger strike. “The workers had been employed in the company since 2005 and worked for six years before they were unjustly fired,” Vasant Rao, secretary of the union, claimed.
They approached the Dewani court which ruled in their favour on December 8, 2016. Later, the industrial court came out in their support, and said they must be paid the salary owed to them in their period of unemployment, as per its order on August 2, 2016.
The company approached the Bombay High Court on September 19, 2016, which called upon the State government to rule on the applicability of the schemes for interim relief under the Maharashtra Mathadi, Hamal and Other Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act, 1969.
“The courts have consistently ruled in our favour, but the workers remain unemployed,” Mr. Rao said.
A government committee supposed to resolve the issue within eight weeks has so far nine meetings of which seven did not have the requisite quorum and two did not arrive at a conclusion. “The government is not taking a decision and we have to sit without jobs; from tomorrow, our children will also join in,” said Babu Rao Pawar, one of the workers.
Overloading of vehicles
The Marathi Kamgar Sena too observed a hunger strike at Azad Maidan to protest the overloading of vehicles, which, they claimed, has led to nearly 15,000 traffic accidents per year since 2014.
“It is a regular practice to load 40 tonnes in a 15-tonne capacity vehicle,” Prakash Koli of the Sena said. The Sena urged the transport commissioner and the regional transport office to prosecute middle men.
“We want an end to these corrupt practices. We will continue the hunger strike till our demands are met,” Mahesh Jadhav, president of the Sena, said.