Release our wages of three months: Pourakarmikas

By Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Pourakarmikas in the city have been demanding that their unpaid salaries of three months be released. The sanitation workers said that eight of them had been let go near the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and the reason offered was that they were surplus to the requirement.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Pourakarmika Sangha president Nirmala said she had approached the civic body officials and told them that it was unfair for them to dismiss these Pourakarmikas summarily. Nirmala said that a year-and-a-half after being let go, they were re-hired under pressure from the union but they did not receive salaries until they had a biometric card made, which was three months later. Until today, they haven’t received salaries for those three months, she added.

Nirmala added that her union had been trying to get the dues released for months but had no luck in the matter. “Some eight Pourakarmikas were let go when Covid first began. They came to us and complained about it. We took them along and even wrote a letter to BBMP officials demanding that they be hired again. They responded about one-and-a-half-year later and hired the employees they had once let go. Trouble is the workers didn’t have biometric cards for about three months and didn’t get paid for that period. Thereafter, they are being paid, but the dues are not cleared,” she said. “I remember some of their names: Nirmala, Tippesh, Chandra and Manula. Others’ names, I don’t quite recall,” she added.

Dismissed during pandemic: Sanitation workerRangamma, another Pourakarmika said that she had been witness to people being sacked during the pandemic and then being re-hired. “The inspectors are from private companies and don’t take responsibility when such complaints are brought before them,” she said.

Nirmala said that sanitation workers had been summarily dismissed in many areas in the city. “This has happened in Mahadevpura, Koramangala, Ejipura and other places too. We have been trying to get their dues released but it hasn’t happened anywhere,” she said.

The union leader added that other issues had been elderly Pourakarmikas being dismissed. “We have seen Pourakarmikas over the age of 60 being let go. They haven’t been hired again or given any benefits in their old age. Others haven’t been getting a weekly off,” Nirmala said.