The four-day-long strike by a section of employees of Madurai Corporation came to an end after marathon talks held by Commissioner (in charge) S. Shanti with representatives of the agitators.
The Commissioner said that the Corporation would implement the revised minimum wages for contractor labourers as per the Collector’s instruction in the wages for September. Besides, pay bill with arrears for all eligible employees with effect from April 2014 was being prepared.
She, however, said that the Corporation could not give up contract system of employment as the civic body’s financial position did not allow it for direct recruitment. “The condition for all the local bodies in the State is that its expenditure on salaries should not exceed 49 per cent of the total revenue. However, already the corporation has crossed 52 per cent on this account,” she said.
Representatives from the Labour Progressive Front, Centre of Indian Trade Unions and Labour Liberation Front held talks after staging a “blind-folded” protest outside the Corporation office near the Periyar statue. A section of the employees, including permanent workers, those getting consolidated pay and those employed by contractors, went on a strike from Monday. Though the Corporation managed to employ additional workers, it could not clear garbage at all points in the city.
The officials complained that the agitators had roughed up employees who turned up for work, damaged the windscreen of a corporation lorry, and dumped the collected garbage on road.
Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa said that the Corporation had passed a resolution in 2014, seeking the State government permission to regularise jobs of 681 employees on consolidated pay.
“Though the appointment of these employees was not done as per the government norms, we have considered their plight in a sympathetic way,” he said.
With regard to the housing needs of the sanitary workers, Ms. Shanti recalled that the Commissioner had initiated a process to get assistance from HUDCO. On appointment to be made on compassionate grounds, she said that all the applications that were received seeking jobs from the legal heirs of those employees died in harness within three years from the death would be considered as per government norms.
A survey to find out the number of workers involved in cremation yard and grave yard in the city, including newly added areas was under way to fix proper wages for them, she said.
Thangavel of LPF complained that the sanitary workers of the 11 village panchayats that were annexed by the Corporation were not getting retirement benefits. They were not issued even retirement orders, he said.
While representatives of LPF and CITU agreed to withdraw the agitation after the talks, LLF men, led by its leader, Bose, walked out. After a brief road roko near Ambedkar statue, they took out a procession to the Collectorate and made a representation at the Collectorate’s office.
The police said that they later agreed to resume work from Friday.
