Members of the Shimla Environment, Heritage Conservation and Beautification (SEHB) Society Workers’ Union, affiliated with CITU, have gone on an indefinite strike against the decision of the Municipal Corporation to abolish their annual 10 per cent salary increment. The Shimla Deputy Commissioner had imposed ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) but still all SEHB workers, including door-to-door garbage collectors, supervisors, road sweepers and drivers, participated in the strike. A protest was organised outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Shimla. The protesting workers resolved to intensify their agitation against the stoppage of annual increment and other pending demands.
CITU state president Vijender Mehra, district secretary Balak Ram and others addressed the protesters. All speakers condemned the decision to discontinue the 10 per cent annual salary increment, calling it an act of dictatorship of the Municipal Corporation. They said that in place of 10 per cent annual increment, a 3 per cent dearness allowance (DA) had been announced, which would result in a monthly loss of Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 for every worker in the future. They called upon the SEHB workers to launch a decisive movement against the decision.
The speakers accused the Shimla Municipal Corporation of being anti-worker. They alleged that every year, garbage, water and property taxes imposed on the public were increased by 10 per cent but instead of spending that money on the SEHB workers, who perform extremely difficult tasks, Municipal Corporation officials waste it on unnecessary expenditure.
They said that the workload on the SEHB workers had increased fourfold over the past few years. The number of households assigned to each worker had risen from 80 to 300 but instead of increasing their wages, the Municipal Corporation had scrapped the 10 per cent annual increment and replaced it with 3 per cent DA.
