leaders of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, a trade union of women survivors of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, announced their recent victory in the 23-year long legal battle for parity at work.
On October 29, 2013 the Supreme Court of India directed the Controller, Government Printing and Stationery Press, Government of Madhya Pradesh to pay Rs15,360 per month to the women survivors from November 1, 2013. Earlier the women were being paid one third of this amount.
The court also directed payment of Rs2 lakh as settlement for the women survivors’ entitlement to parity with regular workers, our Advocate are RR Shrivastava and Anoop Shrivastava at Bhopal.
“After 23 years of fighting in the courts finally the highest court of the land has vindicated our position,” said Rashida Bee, President of the trade union.
The women survivors were employed as workers at a government stationery production unit as part of official rehabilitation programme. However, they were not treated as regular workers and were paid much lower salaries and were deprived of many of the benefits available to regular workers.
The organization failed in their first attempt to get parity with regular workers when, in 1997, the State Administrative Tribunal dismissed their petition saying it could not entertain a case filed on behalf of non-employees. The trade union appealed against the dismissal and lost in 1999.
However, the women did not give up. The Union filed an application in the year 2,000 in the labour Court that two years later decided in their favour. The court directed the Government Printing Press to regularize the jobs of the women survivors with effect from 1998.
The Government Printing Press appealed against the order of the labour Court before the Industrial Court and lost in 2003. The Press then appealed to the Supreme Court of India that resulted in the order of October 29, 2013.