Garbage collectors of Essel Infra left a real good morning message to residents in many wards under Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) area with back on their job of garbage collection after four days. The company employees who were on strike for second time in this year seeking their salaries and dues paid at the earliest were seen back in the streets and around garbage collection spots on Friday morning.
“The workers who were on strike have returned to their jobs on Friday morning after we assured them of their grievances addressed at the earliest. Payment of their salaries on time was the only key issue and we are very much sure that after getting bank accounts of all of them opened, we are in a position to streamline their salaries within a week. We are also hopeful of paying all dues before April 20,” said Essel Infra General Manager Arun Kumar Singh on Friday.
RMC and Essel Infra have locked their horns on many occasions in past on the issue of payments to the workers, as RMC has not paid even a single penny to Essel Infra against the services it has been taking from the latter. Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya on the occasion of previous such strike had alleged Essel Infra officials of being reluctant to resolve issues related to escrow account, resulting to non-payment to the company from the civic body. This also resulted in partial payments of Essel Infra to its employees so far.
However, both the parties, the RMC and the Essel Infra claimed on Friday that the escrow accounts issue has been solved. “We will get one escrow account opened in a day or two after banks open on Monday. We have dues of around Rs 9 crores against RMC which has caused delayed payments to our employees. But we are going to clear all dues before April 20 after we get payments from the RMC,” claimed Singh.
Cleaning work in as many as 14 wards of RMC area under supervision of Essel Infra had come to a halt on February 20 also, when some 400 cleaning workers went on strike. They were demanding timely payment of their salaries with additional benefits and safety gears. The situation had turned worse with families of hundreds of workers also joining the strike and held demonstrations outside RMC garbage dumping yard in Morhabadi. “However, the issue is finally settled now and no garbage will be visible on roads and streets now onwards,” said Vijayvargiya on Friday.