580 BMC sanitation workers win case for job permanency after 24 years

After a fight of 24 years, this dismal situation looks like it might finally change. On November 8, the Bombay high court upheld an industrial court’s 2021 order recognising the 580 workers as permanent

MUMBAI: Dadarao Patekar was 18 and had just failed his Class 10 exams when he began working as a temporary sweeper for the BMC in 1996. Now 44, he is still a temp, and despite the 30 years of work under his belt, the civic body is still resisting making him a permanent worker.

“Even though many precedents now exist, the fight for this set of workers has taken really long.”

Patekar is one of the 580 sanitation workers employed by the BMC through a contractor in order to spruce up Mumbai for the 50th anniversary of Independence. He was paid ₹40 per day at the time against the ₹127 that permanent workers received, and had no weekly holidays. Worse, his attendance was never recorded, making it easy for his pay to be skimmed off.

After a fight of 24 years, this dismal situation looks like it might finally change. On November 8, the Bombay high court upheld an industrial court’s 2021 order recognising the 580 workers as permanent. The workers had first approached the HC in 1999 through their union, the Kachra Vahatuk Shramik Sangh (KVSS).

“In the years that we have been fighting for the permanency of these workers, we have won similar cases for 1,240 workers employed in the 1980s and 2,700 workers employed in 2007,” said Milind Ranade, general secretary of KVSS.

“Even though many precedents now exist, the fight for this set of workers has taken really long.”

The union faced the first hurdle in the long, tortuous journey in 2002, when a change in the legal position meant it could not directly approach the HC and would have to approach the industrial court first. The next leg then stretched on till March 2021. “Our courts are overburdened and we have a shortage of judges, which are the structural reasons for delay,” said Rohini Thyagarajan, a lawyer involved with the case since 2021. “But in a case such as this one, where there are many witnesses on both sides and the documentary evidence runs into thousands of pages, it’s bound to take time.”

After the union won in the industrial court, the BMC filed a petition in the HC, which took another two years. “The HC basically ruled that the contract system is sham and bogus,” said Ranade. “Sanitation work goes on around the year, so the workers can’t be kept on contract for so long.”

Patekar now drives a garbage dumper, earning ₹731 per day or around ₹21,000 per month—far less than the ₹50,000 to 55,000 he would be entitled to as a permanent worker. This difference between his present pay according to the Minimum Wages Act and his deserved pay as per the Central Pay Commission would amount to ₹8 lakh to 9 lakh, according to Ranade. “All my youth has passed like this,” said Patekar.

Sadly, 80 of the 580 workers with Patekar are now dead, felled by the ravages of time and the occupational hazards of conservancy work. “We are Dalit workers,” said Patekar. “Earlier, the Manusmriti ostracised us and kept us outside of society; now the BMC is trying to keep our rights away from us. But we will keep fighting.”

Patkar is referring to the BMC’s decision to now approach the Supreme Court against the HC order. On the day after the order, the BMC approached the HC for a stay on its implementation. The court refused. A civic official confirmed that the BMC would now move the SC, which would mean that Patekar and his compatriots could spend another few years as contractual workers. “The BMC is legally supposed to implement the HC order,” said Thyagarajan. “If they do move the SC, it is likely just a way to delay the implementation.”