The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) to extend the regular employees’ daily allowance of ₹300 to contractual workers who were also at the forefront of the COVID-19 battle.
Justice S.J. Kathawalla, who was hearing a petition by the workers’ union, Samaj Samata Kamgaar Sangh, on behalf of 6,277 people employed with the NMMC, said it would “extremely be unfair and unjust” to differentiate between contractual and regular workers who were risking their lives.
The petition said the corporation was extending a special daily allowance of ₹300 to its employees and officers but had refused to extend the benefit to contractual workers as they were employed by contractors, and not directly by NMMC.
The union informed the court that 3,261 contractual workers were involved in solid waste management, including day-to-day road cleaning and transportation of garbage, 693 workers were employed in the health department, which included duties at four civic-run hospitals and 23 urban health posts across Navi Mumbai. It also stated that 65 workers were employed to clean cemeteries, and all the workers were doing their duty by risking their lives.
The petition sought extension of daily allowance and also the Central insurance scheme to the contractual workers.
The NMMC argued that the workers were employed by contractors to carry out the work and that they were not entitled to the benefits of officers or workers employed by the corporation.
The court, however, said the risk taken by the workers in carrying out COVID-19-related duties for the corporation cannot be differentiated. “The corporation is seen to be making a tacit statement that the workers, though discharging their duties as the corporation’s own employees, are either not ‘risking their lives’, or despite doing so, need to be paid differently only due to their employer being the contractor and not the corporation. To say the least, this would be an extremely unfair and unjust yardstick to use, to value human lives differently,” the court said.
It ordered NMMC to pay certified workers the special allowance and adjourned the matter for further hearing to June 12.
