MUMBAI, Nov 18: A long standing demand of contract workers at the dumping grounds of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to be absorbed by the corporation may finally be accepted. State Labour Minister Sabir Sheikh today promised that the Contract Labour Abolition Board will soon take up the issue. He was addressing an assorted crowd of workers, who led a morcha to Mantralaya today in their `uniforms'.

The matter is to be taken up in the next meeting of the Board, assured Sheikh, who is also the board's president. The contract workers, who are responsible for lifting out and dumping the debris of the city, have no regular salaries, compensations, holidays, job guarantee or medical facilities. They have only recently formed a union, the Kachra VahtukShramik Sangh, to fight for their rights. The union has also filed a writ petition against the BMC for failing to force the contractors to implement basic necessities such as as having a leave card or registration certificates.

Pointing out that the BMC does not have the right to take contract labours for permanent work, as it has been abolished under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970, union leader Milind Ranade castigated the BMC for using contract labourers for the last 15 years. He observed that the BMC does not even have the registration to employ contract labourers.

However, the main grouse of the workers is against an affidavit filed by the BMC on the petition of the union which claims that all the demands of the contract workers, including providing gumboots and raincoats for monsoons to work in the swamps of the dumping ground, water for cleaning and drinking and other necessities had been met with.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.