“We have written to the Labour Commission asking for the directions on the legality of the strike notice,” said Panjim Mayor Shubham Chodankar.
Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Urban Development Francis D’Souza had said, “If the strike is illegal then ‘no work no pay’ concept will be implemented. Workers on strike will have to go without salaries if their strike is termed as illegal by the Labour Commissioner,”
Displaying a positive attitude towards most of the workers’ demands, Chodankar said that CCP is trying to come to an amicable solution. Addressing the media he said, “I have spoken to CM, DyCM, Director of Municipal Administration and also labour commission. We are not neglecting the matter. Most of their demands have been resolved. We are ready to hike daily wages to 35 per cent as we cannot afford more and eight days salary issue is with labour commission now.”
The employees union has been demanding the wages for eight days which was the period of the strike in December last, along with a hike in daily wages up to Rs 409 and regularisation of senior and eligible workers.
CCP Employees Union President, Ajitsingh Rane said that until their demand for eight days strike wages is not resolved, the union will not discuss other demands. CCP workers were seen on the streets of Panjim, wearing old clothes and projecting their poor economic condition.
Rane, however, gave the authorities two more days to meet the demands, failing which they will continue the strike and may even stop collecting garbage in the capital city. He had earlier said that the decision to stop collecting garbage could be taken anytime and that if CCP outsourced the garbage collection they would stop it.
The union on Tuesday had submitted a memorandum to Governor Mridula Sinha explaining the cause of the problem. The union has again demanded the transfer of the CCP Commissioner as they claim that he is feeding wrong information to government.
