NEW DELHI: Protests staged by municipal employees in Delhi have cost the corporation over seven million working hours in 2021, stated Durgesh Pathak, in-charge of municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDs), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday, February 9.
Municipal employees went on strike ten times last year. To be sure, it was largely North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) employees that protested for the late salaries. The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) employees only went on strike once, on December 23, and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) employees did not protest.
The longest strike by 1200 NDMC employees occurred between November 29 and December 31, resulting in a loss of 316,800 work hours. In terms of employee participation, the largest protest occurred between January 6 and 21, involving 52,000 employees and resulting in a loss of 6,656,000 work hours.
Officials from the city indicated that the number of work hours lost was estimated by multiplying the total number of man-days lost by 8, the number of official working hours. The three BJP-run municipal corporations have been suffering from a terrible financial crisis, which has resulted in salary delays and strikes by various employee unions. The AAP, which is the primary opposition in three MCDs, has claimed that BJP officials’ corruption has rendered the three local bodies bankrupt, as well as financial mismanagement.
The rhetorical battle has heated up in recent months as Delhi prepares for key local elections in April. Despite the agitation, the NDMC administration remained unresponsive to their lawful demand for salaries, according to Kuldeep Singh Khatri, President, Shikshak Nyay Manch, which was also a part of the 16-day walkout in January last year. “The NDMC officials paid little attention to our agitation, resulting in the loss of nearly 830,000 valuable man-days, or 6.6 million working hours. A majority of requests made during the first strike of the year, such as time-bound promotions and ex-gratia for deaths caused by the COVID-19, have not been met, he claimed.