Bhayandar: In a major setback for the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), the office of the state labour commissioner has directed the civic chief to review his decision of denying gratuity to the contractual workforce by private contractors and abide in accordance to the stipulated guidelines.The directions followed in response to complaints filed by Shramjeevi Sanghatana’s Vivek Pandit who had also sought the intervention of the Chief Minister against injustice by agencies – mainly the contractor which has been appointed for the lifting and transportation of garbage.
The MBMC had inked a five year contract with Global Waste Management Company in 2012 to lift garbage from the twin-city and ferry it to the Uttan dumping yard. As per section 2 A of the Payment of Gratuity Act, workers are eligible for gratuity if they have worked continuously for five years or more. If the contractor does not pay gratuity then the principal employer is liable to pay, which it can recover by deducting payments from the bills raised by the contractor. “We will never allow the MBMC to escape their liability and deny the justified rights of the workers,” said Pandit.
While the civic administration claims to have accommodated the gratuity clause in the new tender, the same agency has been on-extension mode since the expiry of the tender in 2017. However, the actual ground work is being done by local sub-contractors who have deployed 79 compactor vehicles and 1599 sanitary workers for the job envisaging daily sweeping, cleaning of roads, gutters, pavements, markets, door to door collection and transportation of dry-wet waste separately as per the Municipal Solid Waste Rules, 2016.
- Suresh Golani
