New Delhi: Sanitation workers in Noida have been on strike for the past three days. Their demands involve regularisation, a salary hike and medical insurance. Around 300 workers have gathered outside the office of Noida Authority.
The sanitation workers in Noida are employed through private agencies and third-party contractors, rather than directly by the Noida Authority. The sanitation workers want an end to this contractual nature of work, which doesn’t provide them with job security and other benefits.
“We clean the streets and survive the dust and dirt through the day. And we do so without any job security and on bare minimum salary,” said one sanitation worker, Vishal Valmiki, a member of the NCR Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Union Congress. “There are those who have given 30-40 years to Noida Authority. Why can’t the Noida authority give us the money directly?”
But for the Noida Development Authority, regularisation of the workers is “impossible.” A senior official at the authority told ThePrint that there are thousands of such workers, making it impossible to bring them directly under the Noida Authority.
“We hire sanitation workers through private labour contractors following a due tender process. We pay the contractors, who in turn pay the workers,” said the senior official. “This is variable work. We can’t hire them directly. Tomorrow they will ask for gratuity and pension. How will we pay them?”
The Noida Authority claims that it pays sanitation workers the highest salary in Uttar Pradesh at Rs 18,600 a month. “Our neighbouring Ghaziabad only pays Rs 14,000,” said the senior authority official.
The protesters want their salaries to be increased from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000 per month.
Meanwhile, Noida Development Authority Krishan Karunesh said that he is closely monitoring the strike and is in touch with the protesters.
“We will listen to them and consider their demands. Whatever is possible in our capacity will be done. The current contract is about to end and soon, a new tender process for outsourcing of sanitation workers will begin,” Karunesh told ThePrint.
But the protestors say that the CEO is not in touch with them. “We don’t have anyone. We want Yogi Ji to listen to us. If they won’t listen to us, we will march to DM.”
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‘We won’t clean’
The workers are not only protesting for regular government positions and a pay hike but also medical insurance.
The workers said that they are given medical insurance but after deducting from their salary every year.
“They are deducting 5,000 per year for medical insurance. They are not making us permanent. With every tender, old employees are thrown out and their children who are looking for jobs are not absorbed,” said Valmiki.
The protesters said that they will not clean the roads, pick up waste, or collect waste from RWAs and high-rise societies.
“We will not resume work until our demands are met,” said another protester.
Meanwhile, residents are receiving messages from their RWAs regarding disruption in garbage pickup. One such message reads,
“Disruption in garbage pick up/ disposal services due to workers strike in Noida Authority. Residents are informed that there would be a disruption in the pick-up and disposal of household garbage starting today due to a strike by sanitation workers of Noida Authority.”
In Haryana, a similar protest of three days in August turned into a state-wide agitation lasting over a month. The sanitation workers in Haryana had the same demands regarding regularisation of their jobs and a wage hike. The protestors even shaved their heads to mark a month of the protest.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)