Mira-Bhayandar: More than three months after the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) withdrew the services of a private manpower supply agency, leaving around 648 security guards jobless, local legislator Geeta Jain in association with the Maharashtra Rajya Suraksha Rakshak and General Kamgar Union came to the rescue of the sacked guards by helping them rejoin their duties as guards affiliated to the Security Guards Board. The first batch of 50 guards received the appointment letters and rejoined their respective duties on Monday.
The services of the private security guards provided by the manpower supply agency were withdrawn by the civic administration from October 1, 2023, while relying on a government resolution (GR) binding the principal employer to outsource workers from nine private HR agencies which have been officially deputed for the job.
However, the union knocked on the doors of the judiciary and procured orders to reinstate 160 guards under the aegis of the security guards' board. “Based on the orders, 50 guards were absorbed back into services and we hope the remaining are also reinstated by the administration shortly, failing which we will have to seek the intervention of the court. The guards were groomed and trained to qualify for the job,” said joint secretary of the union Ajinkya Bhosale.
“I am glad that justice has finally prevailed for the local contractual guards who had been rendering their services to the twin city for nearly a decade,” said Jain. “After being rendered jobless, we were struggling to survive. However, thanks to legislator Geeta Jain and the union we have got our jobs back,” said one of the guards Hemant Raut.
In sharp contrast to their meagre salary given by the private agency, the guards are now entitled to get a payout of around Rs20,000 per month. Despite huge chinks in the security apparatus, the MBMC had been doling out astronomical amounts in the form of monthly pay-outs to the manpower agency for the past more than a decade.
Guards retain their jobs | FPJ
About the board
To ensure that the security guards working in various establishments are not exploited, the government enacted a special law in the year 1981 to make better provisions for their terms and conditions of employment and welfare through the establishment of the security guards board by converting the Maharashtra Private Security Guards (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Ordinance, 1981 into the Maharashtra Private Security Guards (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act, 1981.
