Mangaluru : After the civic workers boycotted the work demanding an increase in wages and other issues with the contractor, the city witnessed tonnes of garbage piled up across Mangaluru on Friday .
Around 750 workers stopped lifting garbage from Thursday itself pressing for their demands.
They alleged that the contractor has not revised their salary since the beginning of the contract and demanded they be paid as per the revised minimum wages.
They also alleged that there were discrepancies in remittance of provident fund and ESI subscriptions deducted from their salaries to respective statutory authorities.
Consequently, garbage could be seen at corners of every street even as garbage spilled out from bins in apartment complexes by Friday morning.
Stench, routinely felt in Central Market and other busy places in the heart of the city, only got enhanced by afternoon.
Company’s legal adviser Vivekananda Paniyal told that the workers were right in demanding payment of minimum wages; but the onus lies on the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC).
Though the contract was tonnage-based (₹3,201 per tonne for north package and (₹2,051 per tonne for south package), the MCC is liable to pay any enhancement in the cost owing to statutory requirements. “Increase in minimum wages is a statutory liability and MCC should have enhanced the payment,” he said.
MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer however refuted this demand and said the Department of Municipal Administration has opined that the corporation was not liable to pay for enhanced wages as the contract was for payment per tonnage. The corporation is paying the annual escalation charges too, he added.
Mayor K. Bhaskar told that MCC sought the services of its earlier garbage contractor following the strike by Antony Waste workers, who began clearing the garbage since afternoon.
Following this, Antony Waste too deployed its workers to lift garbage.
Mr. Nazeer said garbage lifting would be normal from Saturday