The 27 scavengers and sweepers working at the behest of Madurai Municipal Corporation at the Madras High Court Bench here are elated over the revision in their pay scale from Rs.43 to Rs.163 a day following a news item carried in The Hindu on July 13.
The pay had been revised not only with respect to those working in the High Court Bench but to all 254 daily wage employees who were absorbed into the corporation’s public health department from local bodies that were annexed to the corporation recently as part of territorial expansion.
Out of the 254 employees, 183 were serving in the Corporation’s north zone, 16 in south zone and 55 in east zone. There were no such employees in the west zone. The revision in pay scale had also been given retrospective effect from August 1 along with arrears of salary from that date.
In a communication addressed to Assistant Commissioners of all divisions, the Corporation Commissioner had ordered for disbursement of arrears of salary forthwith along with the monthly salary due to all the 254 scavengers and sweepers in the four zones.
In so far as the 27 employees deputed in the Madurai Bench were concerned, they were initially engaged by the erstwhile Uthangudi panchayat for cleaning the court premises.
After the merger of the panchayat with the urban civic body, their monthly salary was increased from Rs. 600 to Rs. 1,290.
Despite the increase, the employees rued that they were paid much less compared to other Corporation workers who were paid over Rs. 4,000 a month. Their grievance was reflected in a news story published in these columns on July 13. Then, they were also contemplating to file a case seeking pay revision.
Nevertheless, sparing them of the time and effort in conducting a case against their employer in the very same court where they toil day in and day out, the Corporation itself came to their rescue by considering a representation made by their association on August 24.
