New Delhi: The Haryana government’s urban local bodies (ULB) department is likely to dismiss 30 sanitation workers as the deadline for the striking workers to rejoin duty (September 5) has passed, according to a report by The Tribune. 

The 11 regular and 19 contractual sanitation workers who are likely to lose their jobs are those facing FIRs for obstructing garbage collection in the past month, the report said. 

Haryana’s striking sanitation workers

More than 13,000 sanitation workers who have been employed contractually by the ULB department have been on strike since August 6, demanding that they be regularised. Nearly 3,500 regular sanitation workers also joined this strike, putting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP-led) government in the state in a quandary with heaps of garbage accumulating along roads across several cities in the state.

According to the Haryana government, it has acceded to 12 of the workers’ 13 demands. These include LTC benefits, minimum wages, insurance, PF, risk allowance, compassionate assistance and the promotion of sanitation workers and sewer men to clerical positions, The Tribune reported. However, the government has refused to regularise contractual workers due to “legal implications”. 

“The government is prepared to bring these employees under the ambit of the Contractual Employees Act, 2024. This will enable them to receive benefits nearly equivalent to those of regular employees,” The Tribune quoted Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini as saying. He also added that sanitation workers who have been working on a contract for more than 10 years would also receive a monthly payment of Rs 25,560.

The Haryana government had given the striking workers time till September 5 to rejoin duty, failing which it said that it would take legal and disciplinary action. The possible dismissals of the 30 workers, which could happen on Monday, is part of this.

Sanitation workers would continue the strike, The Tribune quoted Naresh Shastri, state president of the Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh, as saying. “Over 500 workers are facing FIRs. They will be arrested soon. Let them dismiss us. If the government wants a solution, it has to talk to us,” he told The Tribune.

Clashes between sanitation workers and police

On Saturday, sanitation workers in Sirsa took out a symbolic funeral procession of the state government through the city and later burnt an effigy outside the BJP office. 

Striking workers have also been preventing authorities from removing garbage. As a result, clashes have ensued between the workers and the police and administration across the state. The state has registered FIRs against many striking workers, The Tribune quoted a senior official as saying. Per a report by Hindustan Times, confrontations between the police personnel and protesting sanitation workers have occurred in Hisar, Bahadurgarh, Jhajjar, Ellenabad, Hansi, Rohtak and Sonepat.

In Hisar, for instance, a garbage collection vehicle driver was allegedly assaulted by striking sanitation workers on Saturday (September 6). The driver alleged that around 20 to 25 people, who had arrived on nearly 15 motorcycles, surrounded the vehicle and started verbally abusing him. The workers allegedly smashed the vehicle’s front glass, and forcing open the vehicle’s window, pulled the driver out and assaulted him. He said he was threatened with dire consequences if he continued working. The police have launched an investigation into the incident.

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