In new attendance system, absence from work costs their weekly off also for sanitation workers in Hyderabad

GHMC sanitation workers sweeping a road stretch at Banjara Hills .
| Photo Credit: File photo

Palpable unrest is prevalent among the sanitation workers and field assistants of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation about the unwarranted pay cuts, allegedly for the past few months.

Most of the workers have seen a reduction ranging between ₹1,000 and ₹5,000 which they claim is inexplicable, and blame the newly introduced attendance system for the same. GHMC has recently introduced attendance by facial recognition for the Sanitation and Entomology workers and field assistants, in place of the biometric attendance marked earlier.

Since the introduction, salaries have come down despite regular attendance, complain the workers. “I got only ₹13,200 against the ₹15,000 I receive on regular basis. All the workers are facing this issue, and for a few the loss is even higher. The issue is not being resolved even after we brought this to the notice of the supervisor,” complained B. Ramulamma, a worker.

Rather than the software, it is the change in the system of marking the attendance which is problematic, say the supervisors. According to sources, weekly offs are being given to the workers only after six consecutive working days. In case the worker fails to turn up for work on one week day, her payment will be withheld for the day off too as she does not record six continuous work days.

“Earlier, this was not the case. Four days of absence in a month are considered weekly offs, and salary would be deducted only for extra days of absence over and above this limit. Now, even if the worker is absent for one day in a week, she will have to forgo her next weekly off on which she will be marked absent. If a worker is absent one day in each week, she will be marked absent on all her days off,” shared a supervisor unwilling to go on record.

Same policy is applied to sanitary jawans and entomology workers too, who are all working in GHMC on outsourcing basis.

President of the Telangana MCH Employees and Workers Union Alwal Shiva Kumar decried the new policy, and said it is extremely unfair for the workers who are forced to do intensive physical labour for meagre wages. “Their job is very tough, and physically taxing, but they do not enjoy any leaves with pay like other regular employees. Is it fair to rob them of the weekly off too for one day of indisposition?” Shiva Kumar questions, and demands immediate payment of the deducted wages.

Blaming the newly introduced facial recognition software for the issue, he accuses the corporation authorities of putting pressure on the SFAs too to ensure that the days of absence are brought down.

Additional Commissioner, Sanitation, N. Ravi Kiran denied the charges, and said the weekly offs of the sanitation workers are being considered and duly paid.