ThePrint ·
Politics
Noida sanitation workers on 3-day strike. For Rs 25K salary & insurance
The protesters said that they won't clean the roads, pick up waste, or collect waste from RWAs and high-rise societies until their demands are met.
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.”