Navi Mumbai civic body given 15 days to hike contract workers' pay

The issue of implementing the minimum wage and special allowance for service-based contract workers came up forcefully at the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's general body meeting on Friday. Elected representatives strongly criticised the administration for not implementing a proposal that had been approved in June. Eventually, urgent item number 29 was unanimously approved, and the administration was given 15 days to implement the increased pay hike and special allowance.

At the general body meeting, house leader Sagar Naik took an aggressive stance, saying that the approved pay hike of seven thousand five hundred rupees for the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's contract workers was stuck in administrative red tape. He questioned why, despite the corporation having the capacity and sufficient funds to pay more than the minimum wage, workers were being denied it.

Naik said clearly that the work should be completed within the next 15 days without citing technical reasons related to audits as an excuse, and that even if not by Ganpati, the workers' festival should at least be sweetened by Dussehra. He issued this as a final order and warning to the municipal administration to actually implement the pay hike.

He demanded that the chief accounts officer and the concerned administration complete the technical formalities and give workers the benefit of the increased amount before Navratri-Dussehra. Additional commissioner Dr Rahul Gethe, on behalf of the administration, clarified that time was needed to study the proposal and complete certain technical formalities. However, the administration told the house that it would try to complete the necessary action within 15 days.

Urgent item number 29 was then taken up for approval, and the house passed it unanimously. The municipal secretary's department was also directed to immediately send the approved proposal to the administration for further action.

House leaders, citing resolution number 752 passed on June 19, said the special allowance and pay hike approved for contract workers had still not been credited to their accounts. They alleged that despite a provision in the contract's variation clause for implementing a pay hike as per the competent authority's policy, the administration was delaying it. They demanded that the proposal for the increased amount be sent to the standing committee and that action be completed within 15 days. Leader of the opposition Vijay Chougule also supported the demand, saying that the delay since June in this pending issue was unjust to contract workers.

Meanwhile, the mayor expressed displeasure at the administration's delay and made the house's stand on the contract workers' issue clear, warning that if the pay hike was not implemented on time, the entire house would stand with the workers and take to the streets.