Long wait to end soon: BMC assures HC of clearing dues of 580 sanitary workers

After a court ruling, 580 BMC sanitary workers will finally receive their due wages, with the civic body committing to clear pending salaries and arrears.

MUMBAI: Two years after they won a long-drawn legal battle and became permanent employees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 580 sanitary workers will finally start getting their due wages. The Bombay High Court on August 25 disposed off a petition by Kachara Vahatuk Shramik Sangh (KVSS) (Garbage Transport Workers Union), after the BMC promised to clear off the worker’s pending salaries and arrears.

Long wait to end soon: BMC assures HC of clearing dues of 580 sanitary workers

In 2023, the BMC had declared the 580 sanitation workers as its permanent employees. A year later, the KVSS moved the high court seeking the implementation of the Supreme Court order which had asked the BMC to grant those workers permanency as well as monetary benefits. Despite many of the workers serving the BMC since 1996, the civic body delayed following the court’s order, and after the July 3 deadline, the KVSS approached the court again, seeking action against the BMC.

During the August 8 hearing the KVSS highlighted the judgment passed by the high court on November 8, 2023, when it upheld an industrial court’s 2021 order which recognised the 580 workers as permanent employees and directed the BMC to pay their wages within two months.

The civic body challenged the order in the Supreme Court, but the apex court dismissed the BMC’s petition and gave the civic body four months to implement the industrial court’s order. In August, the KVSS alleged that the BMC had not shown any sense of urgency to implement the order. The Sangh pointed out that while 217 workers had received permanency letters, they had not been paid for the past two months, and 363 workers were left out in the lurch with neither permanency certificates nor any wages. The KVCC added that 77 of the workers had already passed away since the order, and some more had crossed the age where employers could contribute to their retirement fund.

On August 25, BMC submitted an affidavit in the court stating that it would pay all the dues of all the workmen. The civic body added that the legal heirs of the 77 workers who had passed away, could claim their dues from the corporation. The BMC also added that out of the 363 workers, many were not traceable, and the corporation had issued public advertisements in local newspapers to call upon the workers to approach the corporation.

Regarding the unpaid wages of workers who had been employed since July, the civic body assured the court that they will be paid on a monthly basis from October 2025.

The bench of justice Milind Jadhav noted the alarming unpaid wages and said, “It is shocking that despite exploiting services of these workmen, giving them status of permanency, they have not been paid in the past two months.” Jadhav accepted the “positive statements and the clear intentions” of the corporation to comply with the apex court’s order, but told the KVVS that they could approach the court again in case of any further difficulty.

For those who had not been paid in July and August the bench directed the BMC to pay an additional ₹50,000 per worker along with their unpaid wages.

“At the end of the day what is important is to ensure that orders passed by the Court are complied with by parties and it is seen that a very positive and clear intent is shown by the Corporation in the case”, the court said.