Whatever happened to work ethics?

This happened in the Margao Municipal Council, where there have been serious allegations of several workers taking home their salaries without working. According to the MMC chairperson Lyndon Pereira, it was noticed that daily wage workers sign the muster roll but are not seen doing any work in the municipality. He has sought details of workers avoiding duty despite signing the attendance register and said the civic body will carry out an investigation on this matter. What has been suggested to the Margao Municipal Council at the meeting that the chairperson had with the workers is strict monitoring of the daily wagers and also streamlining the system of attendance and work.
Will that yield positive results for the council? The chairperson has already warned the staff of action. But unless action is taken, will a warning suffice? The questions are relevant as at the Margao Municipal Council, absenteeism and signing of registers without working is not an entirely new phenomenon. It has faced a similar situation in the past.
In March this year, the chief officer of the same council had admitted that there was mass absenteeism among employees and that he was attempting his ‘level best to discipline the staff’. Those attempts appear to have not succeeded, as had they paid off then the current situation would not have arisen, where, now the chairperson and not just the chief officer, had to intervene and warn the workers. The mass absenteeism at the council in March had arisen after the biometric system of attendance was discontinued as an employee had got infected by COVID-19 and the other employees took the opportunity to abstain from work. It is clear that the workers, employees of this council are only looking for the opportunity to not work. Five months after the attempt to make them fall in line they have now been let off with a warning. Will this bear results?
If this is the second time in less than six months that the council is facing a similar situation, it may need to act a lot more firmly. The workers are being paid by the taxpayers’ money and the council has a duty to ensure that the money that is collected through taxes is not wasted. Yet, this is what has been occurring and the council has again taken no action but preferred to let the workers off with a warning. When will the council act?
There is a similar kind of situation occuring not just in the Margao council but across the State. In the past years there have been instances of ministers and even the Chief Minister warning governemnt staff of action for late arrival in office, for holding second jobs and for being unfriendly with visitors to government offices. There have been only warning and no action has ever been taken. The warnings, however, indicate that there is a problem with government staff discipline and that the political establishment is aware of this.
Unless the establishment – State government and the municipal councils – get strict on the matter, employees and workers will continue to carry on in similar fashion. It is perhaps time to move from warnings to action as the former has not shown to have yielded any results. How long will the authorities continue with warnings. Government employees are not expected to be indisciplined, but since there are some showing such traits, the authorities have to act in such manner as to get them in line. Delaying action will only augment the problem and that the government does not need.