The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a warrant for the sum of Rs 20,000 against the president and the secretary of the employees’ union for not appearing before the court after repeated efforts were made to contact the office-bearers in a plea with regards to the non-payment of salaries and pension to MCD sanitation employees.
A divisional bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli noted,
“We restrain the respondent no.3 (Union) and its members from gheraoing the officers of the petitioner-corporation or strewing garbage on the streets.”
The petition has been filed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation seeking a direction to the respondent authorities to ensure that there is no obstruction in the performance of duties by the petitioner, its officials and employees, safai karamcharis willing to work, further removing safai karamcharis, including members of the respondent unions and other individuals from the area outside the headquarters of the EDMC and ensure smooth ingress and egress to the same.
The petition has been preferred because on account of the Covid-19 pandemic which has been raging for nearly a year, and the consequent lockdown imposed by the government from time to time, the overall economic growth in the country was severely impacted. The same also impacted the revenue generation of the governments and their instrumentalities, including the Municipal Corporations in Delhi. Resultantly, the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD), have been facing difficulty in disbursing salaries to their employees.
Mukesh Kumar, president of respondent no.4/Union assured the Court, “that since issues with regard to the payment of outstanding salaries and pensions are under active consideration of this Court, the respondent no.4/Union would not go on strike.”
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The counsel appearing for the EDMC submitted that the Employee Union (R3) has once again given a strike call for tomorrow.
However, the bench has restrained the Employee Union (R3) and its members from gheraoing officers of the petitioner-corporation or strewing garbage on the streets. The Union is also restrained from preventing other safai karamchari who wish to attend to their duties.