Chandigarh garbage collectors go on indefinite strike
In a major sanitation crisis for the city, the door-to-door garbage collectors announced an indefinite strike on Monday, leaving residents burdened with uncollected waste and overflowing bins. With Sunday already being a non-working day for collectors, the discontinuation of services on Monday caused significant inconvenience to households.
To control the situation, the municipal corporation (MC) commissioner Amit Kumar on Monday decided to implement the principle of “no work no pay”, which means that the salaries will be cut for the protesting staff for the days they will remain on strike, including those who remained on strike on December 21.
“Reportedly a section of door-to-door waste collectors have proceeded to go on strike, causing disruption to the essential services provided by MC. Despite repeated appeals to return to work, the strike continues. I am appealing them to reconsider their decision and return to work immediately. The corporation is willing to engage in constructive dialogue to resolve the issues, but the strike must be called off first,” said commissioner Kumar.
The civic body said alternative arrangements are being made to maintain the continuity of services.
No consensus reached on Dec 21 strike
The garbage collectors had first suspended their work just for a day on December 21, when MC commissioner had called for a meeting with them on December 26. However, with no mutual decision, the collectors announced indefinite strike on Monday.
The protesting workers, who sat for the entire day at city’s MRF centres, are demanding better wages, including a salary hike, citing an increase in workload. “According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the municipal corporation (MC), we were initially tasked with garbage collection only from residential areas. However, their responsibilities were expanded last year to include commercial areas, without any corresponding salary revision. We also demand revised MoU with staff-friendly provisions, which has been pending for a long time. The lack of updated terms and fair compensation has made their working conditions unsustainable,” said Dharamvir Rana, president of the door-to-door garbage collection union.
Rana added, “On December 26, MC offered us labour rate for our work but we are not satisfied with the offer. We are forced to go on strike until our demands are not met.”
The Commissioner appealed to the citizens of Chandigarh to hand over their segregated waste directly in the waste collection vehicles till the strike is over.
