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“SWACCHA BANGALOORU”
CLEANSED BY THE SWEAT OF THE POOR
Support Group for Contract Powrakarmikas
February 2002
CONTENTS
1.
Background
2.
The Powrakarmika struggle
3.
Legality of demands
4.
Workers and their conditions of work
4.1
Wages paid and mode of payment
4.2
Conditions of work and facilities at the workplace
4.3
Regulation of work
4.4
Living conditions
5.
Interview with BMP Commissioner
6.
Attempt to meet Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF)
7.
CONCLUSION
8.
DEMANDS
9.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
10.
ANNEXURES
1.
Labour commissioner office accepting the clari
fication letter
regarding minimum wages (5/11/2001)
2.
BMP issues order regarding minimum wages
(13/8/2001)
3.
BMP issues order regarding minimum wages (14/
12/2001)
Background
The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is responsible
for maintaining the city of Bangalore clean and beautiful.
Nobody would dispute the fact that the BMP has been
eminently successful in its endeavour. The city lives up to
its name of the garden city of the country.
The task of keeping the city clean is truly enormous. Bangalore
has been divided into over 140 health wards (and 86
packages), each needing between 50 to 100 cleaning workers
(Powrakarmikas) to keep them clean. These workers are mostly
dalits. Over 80 percent of them are women. Many are migrants
to the city from other districts of Karnataka, and from
neighbouring states. They constitute the backbone of the
structure that keeps the city clean and beautiful.
In the early nineties the BMP decided that the task of keeping
the city was too enormous for it to do on its own. It took the
plea that subcontracting out the basic task of cleaning the city
would increase the efficiency of the activity. Since then, there
has been a progressive contracting out of the work of cleaning
the city. Presently there are contractors operating out of over
80 wards, and employing around 6000 contract municipal
cleaning workers.
The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Guttige Powrakarmikara
Sangha is a registered trade union representing contract
municipal workers of the BMP. The Sangha has been carrying
on a protracted struggle with the BMP for getting the contract
workers their legal rights.
2
A Support Group for Contract Powrakarmikas was formed by
various human rights organisations, autonomous groups and
concerned individuals to support the Powrakarmikas and the
Sangha in their struggle for justice. The Fact Finding Mission
was constituted by the Support’ Group to enquire into the details
of the struggle, the legality of the demands made by the
struggle, and the living and working conditions of the
Powrakarmikas. This report is a result of an independent
investigation carried out by the Fact Finding Mission.
The Powrakarmika struggle
The Bangalore Mahanagara Pallike Guttige Powrakarmika
Sangha has been carrying on a struggle on behalf of the
contract municipal workers of the BMP for the last six years. It
has employed various forms of non-violent struggles to make
its demands known, and to seek redressal for the various forms
of illegality in the employment conditions of the contract
workers.
The present intensive phase of the struggle has been going
on for the past six months. It has involved intensive mobilisation
of workers from the different wards in the city. The Sangha
focussed its struggle on the office of the commissioner of the
BMP, being the principal employer of the contract workers. It
held several large dharnas of more than a thousand worker’s
outside the office of the BMP at the Bangalore Mahanagara
Palike. The Sangha representatives submitted several
memorandums to the BMP Commissioner and to the office of
the Labour Commissioner.
3
The struggle concentrated on the issue of regulation of work
of the contract employees. It demanded that all the employees
had to be paid the statutory minimum wage for this category
of work. The union said that the current wages paid to the
workers was far below any statutory minimum wage. The wages
paid to women was Rs.800-900 per month, and to men
Rs. 1000-1100 per month. As against this, the union claimed
that workers should be paid minimum wages of Rs.71.80 per
day, or Rs.2146 per month of 30 days. In a clarification to the
union, the Labour Department had issued a memo dated 31 10-2001 that the Gazette Notification number SKK 25 LMW
88, dated 27-11-1993, specified a minimum wage for all
workers employed in road building and maintenance, and
construction of buildings. The Notification included sweepers
and scavengers. As perthis, the current minimum wages for
that category was Rs.71.80 per day.
The union also demanded recognition of the workers and
safeguard of their work through issue of identity cards and pay
slips. It demanded that the BMP officials should take steps to
prevent any form of harassment at the work place and to ensure
that conditions of work are regulated as per the guidelines
issues to the contractors in the tender documents. In order to
strengthen the struggle the union also raised a conciliation
process with the Labour Department. It went around the wards
collecting for the first time personal details of the workers, for
submission to the Labour Department for the conciliation
process.
4
As a result of the struggle and the discussions, the BMP
Commissioner made public statements before the workers
sitting on dharna that they would be paid minimum wages as
per the norms applicable to construction workers. He passed
an order, dated August 13, 2001, requiring payment of
minimum wages with immediate effect, and explicitly stating
payment by cheque.
The struggle reached a crisis with the workers from around
forty wards refusing to accept payment at the existing rate for
the months of November and December, 2001. The new
contracts of the BMP had been executed from the month of
November, and the workers had been hopeful because of the
assurances of the BMP Commissioner that they would be paid
wages according to the Minimum Wages Act with the
commencement of the new contract. The workers resisted
threats by the contractors to abandon the contracts, and
inducement of enhancement of the wages by Rs. 100 per month.
As of date, around a thousand workers from twenty wards are
still holding out, without accepting wages for the two months.
The BMP Commissioner passed another order dated
December 14, 2001, confirming immediate payment of
minimum wages. The other substantive issues addressed in
the order including: payment of wages by cheque/ cash;
notification of a fixed time and place in each ward for payment
of wages; the presence of senior and junior health officers of
the BMP to oversee the payment of wages; health officers and
other staff of the BMP to ensure that the contractors behaved
properly with the workers. The notification also stated clearly
5
that the salary for the month of November should be paid by
December 18th. However, even the second order of the
Commissioner could not break the status quo.
At the arbitration proceedings before the Labour
Commissioner on January 17th, 2002 and attended by the
BMP Commissioner and the union representatives, the Labour
Commissioner revealed that as on the date the contract BMP
workers were not included under the schedule for minimum
wages. The whole process of their notification under the
schedule, and fixing a minimum wage wou_d have to be
commenced from scratch. The Labour Commissioner said that
his department would commence the process immediately.
The immediate attempt then was to work out a compromise
wage to be paid in the interim, while the process of notification
for minimum wages carried on.
Legality of demands
Perennial nature of work: The first issue is of employment
of contract workers for the job. The work is of a perennial
nature. Linder the Contract labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act,
1970, the government is empowered to abolish by notification
employment of contract labour in an establishment where work
carried out by the contract worker is necessary to the work
carried out by the establishment and is also perennial in nature.
In the context, the BMP went contrary to the spirit of the Contract
Workers’ (Regulation and Abolishment) Act in allowing
contracting out of the work.
6
Wages to workers: The payment of wages to the workers at
Rs.800-900 for women and Rs. 1000 for men raises several
issues of the law. First, the law (Article 14 of the Constitution
and Equal Remunerations Act, 1976) specifies equal wages
for equal work in the same establishment. In the city, permanent
employees of the BMP also do the same work as undertaken
by the contract workers. The permanent employees are paid
upward'of Rs.4000 plus various other benefits. This gross
difference in wages for the same work in the same
establishment is definitely contrary to the law. Further, Rule 25
of the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolishment)
(Karnataka) Rules, 1974 states that “in case where workmen
employed by the contractor perform the same or similar kind
of work as the workmen directly employed by the principal
employer of the establishment the wage rates, holidays, hours
of work and other conditions of service of the workmen shall
be the same as are applicable to workmen directly employed
by the principal employer of the establishment on the same or
similar kind of work.”.
Minimum wages: The tender document for contracting out
the municipal cleaning work clearly stipulates that the workers
should be paid “fair and reasonable wages, which shall not be
less than the minimum wages fixed by the government...”.
The responsibility for implementing this condition of the tender
falls squarely on the BMP. The fact then is that the BMP was
acting in a breach of its contract in not ensuring the fixation of
a minimum wage. Also, employing workers at salaries grossly
below the prevailing the prevailing stipulated minimum wage
for similar work is tantamount to forced labour under Article
7
23 of the Constitution. The illegality is compounded in that it is
an agency of the state government that is a party to this.
No regulation of employment: No worker is provided with a
contract or any other proof of her/his employment as a contract
employee. The union claimed that there were absolutely no
procedures for disciplinary action, and the contractors
dismissed workers at will, without assigning any reasons.
There was no mechanism to redress any grievances. While
health officers of the BMP were designated to visit the wards,
and to regulate working conditions, the union claimed that visits
were rare, and that the health officers did not perform any
regulatory role.
There are several other issues of regulation of work that are
currently being violated. The tender document stipulates as
the contractor’s responsibility, to provide: “medical aid and
compensation"; “first aid facility at site”; “uniforms and badges
...”; “protective wherewithal like hand gloves and mask and
also gum boots for lorry loaders...”. The fact is that none of
these facilities are provided.
The Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolishment) Act clearly
provides for weekly holidays and other leave facilities. None
of these are made available to the contract workers in this
case.
Social security: The workers are not provided any social
security benefits, including medical benefits, PF, etc. Given
that the workers are predominantly women, it is significant that
women are provided with no maternity benefits. In many
8
instances, women did not even have security of their work when
they were forced to go on maternity leave.
It is clear that the contractors are legally in the wrong on several
scores in the way in which the contracts are presently being
carried out. It is also clear that the BMP as the principal
employer has a responsibility for regulating the activities of its
contractors, in which it has totally failed.
Workers and their conditions of work
The Fact Finding Mission carried out a survey over three days
from January 11th to 14th. It covered 215 workers from 22
wards grouped around Kathriguppe, Gurupanapalya,
Kamanahalli, K.R. Market, Nandini Layout and Nagapura. The
teams of the Fact Finding Mission met women and men
workers in groups of ten to twenty. The issues discussed
included wages paid and mode of payment; working condition
and facilities at
work place, including incidence of
harassment faced at work place; regulation of work; and living
conditions. The general findings are as discussed below.
Wages paid and mode of payment:
The standard wage paid to all workers was Rs.800-900 r
month for women and Rs. 1000 per month for men. The wage
was paid in cash. There was no fixed date and time, or place
for making payments. The agent of the contractor (maistry)
would on any day of the month take group of workers in the
9
ward aside and pay their wages. In general there was no record
of payment made. There was no list giving any details of the
workers’ names or the amount due to them. In some wards the
workers said that on occasions they were made to sign (put
their thumb impression) on a list containing only their names.
There was no listing of the wages paid to them.
There were no holidays from work. In some wards, at the
discretion of the contractor, workers would be let off early (by
noon time) on some prominent hindu festival days. Otherwise
the workers had to be at work from 6.30 in the morning to 1.30
in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday, and from 6.30 in
the morning to 11.00 AM on Sunday. In K R Market, workers
work in two shifts, from 6.30 in the morning to 1.30 in the
afternoon and from 2.00 to 6.45 in the evening. A forty six and
a half hour work-week. The wages at Rs.800 per month for
women works out to an average of Rs.27 per day.
The women were asked about the wage difference between
them and men. All said that they worked at least as hard as
the men, and deserved to be paid the same wage. They said
that work requiring greater strength was done by men. This
included loading the lorries and clearing big stones. However
women also said that if required they could also do the same
work.
Attendance was taken thrice every day, at 6.30 in the morning,
10.00 and 1.30 in the afternoon. The workers had to assemble
at the attendance place from wherever they were at work. Even
a five minutes delay meant that the worker was not allowed to
report for work on the day. Moreover, a deduction of Rs.40
10
was made for each day of absence, as against the actual
average daily wage of Rs.27 for women. One worker being
absent from work did not mean that some of the work remained
undone. The other workers had to work that much more to
ensure that all work was completed. The contractor thus did
not lose any revenue because of the absence of the worker.
This was just extra money in his pocket. There were additional
deductions made for “deficiencies” in work. This could include
a fine of up to Rs.10 for any garbage dropped on the way - or
as much as 40 percent of the daily wage for a single example
of “deficiency”. Finally the decision of “deficiency” in work and
the penalty to be imposed was at the sole discretion of the
maistry.
The Rs.27 per day for women had to cover all their expenses,
and leave some money over to sustain their families. Some
women came from a distance requiring them to take a bus.
They spent up to Rs. 10 per day on bus travel. One woman had
to spend as much as Rs. 14 on bus charge. Almost all of them
had no time to eat any food before coming to work, and needed
to spend some money on tea and snacks to sustain them
through the day. At the end of the month, after deductions for
forced absences and for necessary daily expenses, the money
left over for the women from their hard labour could only be a
pittance.
The women were asked if they did other work to augment their
earnings. While in some wards women said that they took in
work like rolling agarbathis, or went out and did domestic work,
many claimed that they were just too exhausted at the end of
11
the day to do any more work. Some of them had husbands or
children who were also wage earners, or lived in joint families
with other wage earners. However there were women who ran
households on only their single income. One woman had a
husband who had lost both his legs in an accident at the work
place. Another had a husband who was an acute TB patient
and could not do any sustained work. It remains a mystery how
these households even managed to meet the basic
sustenance requirements. These are issues of slum politics
and livelihood that need to be explored further.
It was interesting to note that with the stepping up of union
protest since November, 2001, and with the workers in many
wards refusing to accept anything less than the minimum wage,
the contactors had through their agents started offering wage
increases, of upto Rs.100 per month.
Conditions of work and facilities at the
workplace:
On an average a worker had to leave the house by 5.30 in the
morning to be at the workplace by 6.30. We can assume that
her day started at 5 in the morning. Many women walked long
distances to the workplace, in order to save the bus fare. On a
daily wage of Rs.27, every rupee counted. They walked in
groups, to avoid the hazards on the road at that time. The
hazards varied from local hoodlums to stray dogs. One woman
had been bitten by stray dogs eight times in the around ten
years that she had been employed. There were many who had
12
been bitten by dogs more than once. Even among the women
who took a bus to work, the day started very early. One woman
took the bus from Ashoknagar to her workplace at Kamanahalli,
spending Rs.14 every day. She had to walk for half an hour
from her residence to the bus stop, leaving her house, on her
own, before 5 in the morning. Another woman who lived by an
army barracks, in Chikbanaswadi, had to face a barrage of
wolf whistles and rude comments every morning on her way to
work.
At this time of the day the women did not have time to either
cook or eat any breakfast. All the women said that they left
home without even a cup of tea. Many waited till 3.30 or 4 in
the evening, when they were back home from work, to cook
and eat their only proper meal for the day. At work they had to
make do with the occasional cup of tea. And the occasional
leftovers wrapped in paper from some residence or hotel
around the workplace. There was no facility for drinking water,
or even water to wash up at the workplace. The women said
that no residents offered them drinking water. After all they
belonged to the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy, and
Bangalore for all its claims to modernity is as caste conscious
as any other city in India. In fact the women said that if they
needed water they went to the hotels, which were more modem
in their outlook than the middle class households!
An interesting feature of the workplace was the absence of
any discrimination among the workers themselves. While a
majority of them were dalits from the community, many were
from other scheduled castes (SCs), like odders and kurubas,
13
and even from other backward castes (OBCs) like gowdas.
At the workplace there was no discrimination with respect to
being together, sharing their belongings, or the type of work
done.
The workplace was just an open space to gather in. There
were no facilities of a room to rest, or even to keep the
implements. In only one ward at Kathriguppe was there a room
in which the workers kept all their implements. The workers
themselves arranged the room and the old person who took
care of the implements! The contractor or his agent had nothing
to do with getting this facility. In other wards the workers either
kept their implements in the residence of some of the more
accessible residents, or carried the implements every day with
them. The open fields or bushes beside the roads were the
only facilities they had to answer calls of nature. Jayamma from
Girinagar said,” when we go to answer calls of nature, the
contractor’s agent follows us and asks what we are doing
wasting our time!”
The implements given to the women were a broom and a
dustpan (mumti). The men had a larger mumti, a sickle and a
spade. None of them had uniforms, protective gloves or boots.
These are very specifically mentioned in the contract document
of the Bangalore Mahanagara Pallike (BMP). Many women
said that even for these minimum implements they had to often
pay their own money. A broom would last only ten to fifteen
days, while the contractor normally allowed a replacement only
once a month. The physical effort the women had to undergo
with a worn out broom was much higher. They had to stoop
14
lower, and sweep that many more times. Many found it more
acceptable to purchase their own replacement. The mumtis
given were replaced only once annually. Often the women had
to work with leaky mumtis, handling fecal matter and all manner
of decomposed garbage. The women also said that on the
occasion of losing any implement the full price of a new
implement was deducted from their wage.
The long hours of strenuous work, the terrible work conditions,
the lack of proper food took a terrible toll on the health of the
Powrakarmikas. The women all had rashes covering their
hands. They got it primarily from pulling out the parthenium
weed found all over. Some women said that when they tried to
use waste plastic bags to protect their already hurt hands while
pulling the weed they were shouted at by the maistry for slowing
the work. In addition, all complained of severe back pain due
to continuous bending during work. They all had swollen and
painful elbow joints from hours of continuous sweeping. They
had all suffered cuts on their hands and feet from handling
waste, which needed immediate medical treatment. A large
majority of them complained of respiratory problems. These
were all only the standard hazards at the workplace. The
workers on an average said that they spent around Rs. 1000
every year on medical expenses. They had to depend often
on private medical facilities, as the government facilities took
time, which they could not afford.
There were also numerous incidents reported of more severe
accidents during work. One woman, Marakka who worked in
ward 54 A, was run over by a truckhile she was sweeping the
15
road. As the other workers immediately rushed to the place,
stopped the truck and created a scene, the contractor was
forced the Rs.3000 plus hospitalisation expenses. The woman
still cannot walk properly. She has got no other compensation,
other than the hospitalisation costs. Another woman lost the
use of an arm when a heavy stone from the truck fell on the
arm while she was loading the garbage truck. A worker suffered
severe fractures when a cart he was loading overturned on
him. Muniyamma from Nagpura ward burnt her hand badly
while she was clearing garbage, because of the bursting of an
unused cracker. Aiyamma from Mico Layout died when her
saree caught fire while she was burning garbage. The
contractor gave only Rs.3000 as compensation as against the
Rs.50, 000 spent by her family in an attempt to save her life.
She was the main wage earner in the family. Her daughter,
Meenakshi, says that to this day the family is repaying the loans.
Workers claimed that accidents involving vehicles were
common. In most cases there was no compensation of even
the medical expenses. And in most cases the worker was not
assured of her job when she came back to work.
Harassment at the workplace was a daily event. The workers
had to routinely face abuse from the maistrys. None of the
women reported any incidence of overt sexual harassment.
However the union activists mentioned a few specific
instances of harassment by the contractor and the maistry. It
was interesting to hear from women in the Kamanahalli ward
that they would not tolerate any such behaviour or derogatory
caste based comments in their ward. This is an area where
16
the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) is very active, and the
women referred to the DSS as their source of strength.
There was a high degree of alcohol, tobacco and beetle leaf
consumption among the workers. Both men and women said
that they had to handle decomposed garbage in its worst forms.
The garbage often contained used sanitary napkins loosely
thrown in, fecal matter, etc. They had to handle all this without
any proper implements, and often with their bare hands. The
situation was even worse during rains, when the workers had
to handle wet and slimy garbage, which invariably leaked all
over them. One woman held out her hands and said that with
these bare hands she had shifted decomposed carcasses of
so many dead animals. What more could be asked of her?
The only way in which they could withstand the filth and smell
was through deadening their sensibilities through some form
of substance abuse. The effect of this on both the fragile health
and economic condition of the workers could only be very
detrimental.
Pregnant women had no maternity leave, no special
consideration of the work to be done. There was no guarantee
of their getting back the job when they came back. In some
cases their husbands or substitute workers were allowed to
take their place for the duration of their absence.
There were of course no creche facilities for children. Most
women left their children with others, including aged parents
living with them; or in the care of older children; or with
neighbours. There were instances of women having to bring
17
their children to the workplace, and leave them under a tree or
any other shelter in the neighbourhood. Gangamma from
Kathriguppe pointed to her son who is a young contract
municipal worker, and related how she had been forced to carry
the boy around with her to work. The children would then be
exposed to the same long hours, inclement weather, and
pollution.
Regulation of work:
As stated, in most instances the maistry was the only authority
for regulation of work. His exercise of authority was arbitrary,
and there were no written guidelines to be followed in his
exercise of authority. Many workers had not even set eyes on
the contractor. As such, their only experience of authority was
as vested in the maistry. They had no concept of a channel for
arbitration or redress of grievances.
There is an official of the BMP known as the Medical Officer of
Health (MOH), who is supposed to visit and inspect the
conditions of work at the different wards. In most cases the
workers said that they had never met the MOH. Some said
that the MOH only came once every few months, and even
during these infrequent visits, he made no attempt to talk to
individual workers. The workers had no idea of what role the
MOH was supposed to perform.
The arbitrariness of the use of authority was demonstrated well
in the incidence related by Nagalakshmi of ward 63 A. She
18
was involved one day in cleaning the garbage from one of the
dumps. A woman from a neighbouring house came and
dumped her garbage just outside the garbage dump. The
worker remonstrated that the garbage should be put in the
dump, and not outside it. At this the woman shouted that it was
the duty of the worker to clean the garbage and started abusing
the worker. A couple of youths from the house joined in and
thrashed the worker so badly that she had to be admitted for
two weeks to a hospital. The maistry and the contractor rushed
to the spot. They found it convenient to accept the story of the
middle class woman that it was the worker who was at fault,
and had started the trouble. She was promptly dismissed from
her job. Such an arbitrary dismissal, without a formal procedure
of enquiry, would never have taken place in the case of tenured
workers.
Living conditions:
All the workers lived in slums. A small proportion of them owned
the shanties they lived in, through slums getting regularised.
Many lived in rented shanties in the slums. They paid rents of
Rs.500 to 700 per month. The manner in which they balanced
their fragile economies to meet these expenses is a matter
for further enquiry. Some women had the support of their
husbands or children, who also worked and contributed to the
running of the house. One woman did not even have the luxury
of a shanty house, and lived as a squatter in a tent. This would
probably the case with other women who ran their houses on
their incomes alone.
19
None of the slums had toilet or water facilities. The residents
went out to answer calls of nature. The women usually managed
bathing and washing up standing in a bucket in their shanties,
as there were no drainage facilities. One can well imagine
how difficult it would be for women to get ready and leave the
house early in the morning.
Most of the workers managed to send their children to school.
However they all said that it was with great difficulty that they
managed this. As one woman said - “we send our children to
government schools where we do not have to pay, but we still
need to buy the books”. Another woman from Nandini Layout
had to take her daughter out of third standard to look after a
younger baby, as she did not have any other support.
The workers said that medical expenditure was a significant
portion of their expenditure. Much of the expenditure was
directly related to cuts, bruises and ailments got from working
in unsanitary conditions. As stated, workers could not go to
government hospitals for small complaints, as they just could
not take any time off from work. One can imagine the type of
treatment they would get from the medical quacks they went
to. Many workers also complained of chronic respiratory
ailments. This is only to be expected, given their backbreaking
work in the open, under all weather conditions, with all the
pollution around, and with the food habits enforced on them by
poverty and exigencies of work. All the women said that they
could only have one proper meal after returning home in the
evening. They had to manage the whole day out working without
a break, except for cups of tea to quell their hunger. The
20
occasional scraps of food given by residents were the only
sustenance through the day for many workers.
Alcoholism and domestic violence were a way of life. Even
many of the women said that they drank to forget their pains
and get some sleep at night. They all said that the men drank
and were often violent and abusive. One elderly woman had to
face regular violence from her grown up sons. With all this they
had no recourse but to get ready for work early the next
morning. Life had a relentless pattern forthem, broken only by
illness or loss of employment.
The workers were asked what would constitute a fair wage.
Most said that if they were paid the minimum wage they were
promised, that was adequate. At the present extremely low
level of wage of Rs.800 for women, the minimum wage of
Rs.2150 constituted a nearly two and a half times increase.
Given the uncertainty of work, the nature of hazards, and the
total lack of any social security measures, this is still not at all
a living wage. If we compare their wages with even the salaries
drawn by permanent workers of the BMP who do the same
job, and who are at the lowest rungs of salary of government
employment, the contrast is glaring. The permanent workers
are paid upward of Rs.4000 per month, with benefits of tenure,
weekly holidays and some social security. One woman had
the electricity to her shanty cut off because of non-payment of
an electricity bill. To her such an amount of money was just
unachievable. She clearly stated that if we were paid Rs.5000
per month, we would be able to manage a decent living.
Anything less than that would only lead to a slight betterment
of out wretched condition.
21
lt>0
J
Interview with BMP Commissioner
The Fact Finding Mission met the BMP Commissioner Mr.
Ashok Dalwai on January 31,2002, at 3.30 pm at the office of
the Commissioner. The following are the highlights of the
discussions.
The Commissioner said that the BMP followed a policy of
awarding contracts to the lowest tender bids. The BMP did
not give consideration to whether the contract amount was
adequate to give the workers a proper wage and benefits.
The Commissioner admitted that the present contract amount
was not adequate to pay the workers minimum wages and
give them the benefits due under law. It was the struggle of the
workers that was making the BMP pay attention to the needs
of the workers. Till now attention was not given to enforcing
rules and regulations as per the Contract Labour (Regulation
and Abolition) Act, 1970. In the future attention would be paid
to this.
The Commissioner added that to make the work easier more
efficient carts, to clear the garbage, have been introduced.
According to him, it is more difficult for women to push the
carts; hence, the BMP was now interested in appointing more
men.
The Commissioner saw the present problem of bad working
conditions as that of the contractors not being ‘professional’. If
contracts _Ewere given to ‘professionals the problem would
be solved. He said that in the present context of privatisation,
absorption of workers could not be considered. It was more
22
eefficient to contract out more and more of the work. Mr.Dalwai
:said that the BMP earlier used to employ its own vehicles for
its cleaning activities. It has now got most of the vehicles on
contract. Even in various departments of the BMP, staff had
been reduced by 20 percent through contracting out work.
According to him, more of the work should be subcontracted.
Currently, the BMP uses 90 percent of the money it collects,
by way of taxes, to pay salaries. This should be reduced. Or
else development of the city is not possible. The only solution
to reducing the wage bill, is to employ fewer people, give them
better facilities, and make them work harder
He concluded by saying that the primary concern of the BMP
was to keep the city clean.
Attempt to meet Bangalore Agenda Task
Force (BATF)
The members of the fact- finding mission attempted to meet
the BATF on 1st February 2002. Even though they had a
appointment, they were informed that the person they were to
meet had another appointment and was therefore unavailable.
However, they were given a glossy BATF brochure that has all
the information concerning BATF’s activities.
BATF being a citizens’ body initiated by the Government is a
stakeholder in the clean Bangalore campaign. It is unfortunate
that they their concern does not extend to the situation of those
workers keeping the city clean.
23
Attempt to meet Contractors
It was a futile attempt to meet the contractors as they did not
show any interest. Repeatedly the fact finding team tried to
get an appointment in vain. So the fact finding team finally
decided give up the efforts to meet them.
Conclusions
At the outset, the whole situation clearly underscores the callous
manner in which the BMP has shrugged off its responsibility
towards contract workers employed in its primary activity of
keeping Bangalore city clean. First, the BMP should not have
resorted to contracting out of this activity. It is of a perennial
nature, and is essential to the work carried out by the BMP. In
fact, the BMP employs tenured workers to do the same work
that the contract workers do. These tenured workers have terms
and conditions of work very different from that of the contract
workers. This is not to say that permanent workers are being
compensated more than what is due to them. Considering the
nature of the work and the effort required, even the permanent
workers are being exploited. Second, having contracted out
the work, the BMP has done nothing to regulate the conditions
of work. The tender document of the BMP clearly specifies the
payment of a minimum wage. After ten years of the practice of
contracting out work, we find that the Labour Department stating
that the work has not even been notified for adding to the
schedule of employments with a minimum wage. There are
various other regulations relating to conditions of work clearly
24
stipulated in the tender document of the BMP. We find that not
a single one of these has been enforced by the BMP. The
impact of this indifference is clearly to be seen on the health
and living conditions of the workers.
From the interview with Commissioner Dalwai, it is clear that
the attitude towards cleaning operations will mean private
bodies getting involved, and reduction of employment,
especially for women. He also affirmed that the BMP’s attention
to the plight of workers has only been very recent and that too
because of their vociferous struggle over the past few months.
As he himself said, “the primary objective of the BMP is to
keep the city clean.” Any thing else is, possibly, of secondary
importance.
The contractors have all adopted a totally cavalier attitude
towards their employees. To the extent that the employees did
not even have a formal contract or a document to prove their
employment. The fact that there is such uniformity in the wages
paid, the hours of work, and all other forms of regulation of
work clearly shows the existence of a customary pattern of
management of work. It is impossible that the officers of the
BMP responsible for overseeing the contractors are not fully
aware of this customary pattern. In fact, the contractors did not
even meet the fact-finding mission despite repeated attempts
to contact them for their comments on the employment
situation. This in its self shows the indifference of the
contractors’ to their employees.
We see in all this a clear corroboration of the charge of the
union that this whole unfair pattern of management of work
25
was possible because of corrupt dealings between the
contractors and a number of influential officers of the BMP.
The union also claimed strong political patronage for the
practice, making it impossible for even honest senior
functionaries of BMP to bring about any change. We have
further evidence of possible corrupt dealings in the fact that
some contractors had themselves gone to court demanding a
stay in the giving out of contracts on the plea that a large
number of contracts were awarded to a single cartel.
Finally, the contractors in various wards have threatened
workers that if they were awarded minimum wages the
contractors would no longer be interested in the contracts and
would abandon them. This should in no way be allowed as a
reason to delay the process of immediately granting the
workers minimum wages and other legal rights. The workers
hav_Ee already been denied their rights for ten years. In factthe
BMP should be held responsible forthis illegality overten years,
and should be made financially liable.
We should add here that the various corporations of the
Karnataka state employ upward of 50000 contract workers in
different townships. They all face similar conditions of work.
Any change in the conditions of work of the contract workers
of the BMP would have an immediate impact on the conditions
of the other contract workers. Over 50000 workers stand to
gain by a speedy resolution to the dispute.
26
Demands:
In this context, we fully support the demands of the workers
with respect to the following:
1)
Payment of minimum wages to all workers together
with all statutory benefits
2)
Ensuring the presence of the principal employer, and
labour department at the time, date and place
stipulated for the payment of wages
3)
Ensuring the presence of the principal employer, and
labourdepartment to perform all regulatory activities
as required
4)
The issue of ID cards and wage slips as per the law
5)
Confirmation of the services of all workers as
employee of the principal employer with service
weightage
6)
Ensuring steps to prevent sexual harassment at the
workplace as perthe Supreme Court guidelines in
this regard
7)
Action should be taken against untouchability
8)
According to the Contract Act women and men
should be paid equal wages
9)
They should be provided with uniforms, badges,
gumboots, giouses and other safety equipments.
10)
Essential medical facilities should be given
27
Chronology of Events
Date
Event
August 2001
Demonstrations before the BMP
August 13, 2001
BMP Commissioner passes an order,
dated August 13, 2001, requiring
payment of minimum wages with
immediate effect, and explicitly stating
payment by cheque.
Sept 31,2001
Demonstrations
before
Labour
Commissioner’s office
Oct 31,2001
Labour Department memo specifying
minimum wages of Rs 71.80 per day for
workers
in
road
building
and
maintenance, construction of buildings,
and sweeping and scavenging.
Oct-Nov, 2001
Union and Citizen’s Group collect
personal details of Powrakarmikas for
submission to the Labour Commissioner
as part of the conciliation process.
Nov 2001
Sub-contracting
of
municipal
maintenance work passes into hands
of new set of contractors, as previous
contract expires.
Nov 12,2001
Labour commissioner issued a draft
notification exercising powers vested in
28
him under Contract Labour (Regulation
& Abolition) (Karnataka) Rules 1947
under sub-clause (b) of clause fv) of sub
- rule (2) of rule 25.
Nov-Dec, 2001
Struggle intensifies as workers of 40
wards refuse to accept illegal payment
by contractors and demand minimum
wages.
BMP Commissioner passes another
order dated December 14, 2001,
confirming immediate payment of
minimum wages and other substantive
issues.
Jan 5,2002
Forming of support group with human
rights groups, women’s rights groups,
eminent artists, activists from different
struggles.
Jan 10, 2002
Demonstrations
in
front
of
Commissioner’s office demanding
minimum wages.
Jan 17, 2002
Labour Commissioner reveals that as on
the date minimum wages for contract
municipal workers not included in the
schedule.FEBRUARY, 2002
29
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With your bare hands you pull out dirt
from dirty drains
from city dumps
Shards of glass pierce the flesh
of your hands
The story of your life flows like
a river of tears
The strength of your body ebbs
away
despite this, they call you
untouchable
Your sweat is your strength
Your broom is your flag
Yours will be the final victory
K. Ramaiah
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