TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: Claiming that the Municipality has finally worked out an amicable solution with civic employees, Chief Officer, Sandhya Kamat on Monday said the civic body will implement the bio-metric finger-scan readers for the employees from April 16.
Before taking up her posting as district Additional Collector following her transfer, Ms Kamat said she has issued a circular on Monday, making recording of attendance on the bio-metric readers compulsory. “From April 16, the Municipal employees will record their attendance on the bio-metric finger scan reader following an amicable solution with the employees”, Ms Kamat told Herald.
She said Municipal field workers are excluded from the purview of the finger scanner given the nature of a field job, adding that only employees working in the Municipal office are mandated to use the finger scanners.
Referring to the written points raised by the Goa Municipal Employees Association on the status of peons and drivers working late hours, the Chief Officer said that both these categories of employees will be entitled for overtime. “While the bio-metric finger scan readers will maintain record of the overtime put in by the peons, the log book will keep a track of extra work done by the drivers”, she added.
When contacted, leader of Goa Municipal Employees Association Anil Shirodkar said the association will have a meeting of office bearers on April 11 to take stock of the situation.
He admitted that the association had a meeting with the Chief Officer on the issue and had submitted a list of questions for redressal.
It was more than half a decade ago that the Margao Municipality had first made an attempt to record employees’ attendance on bio-metric readers but the proposal was shot down by the employees.
Repeated attempts to revive the system also met with a similar fate with employees opposing the finger scan readers, even though a number of Municipal bodies across the state had switched over from muster rolls to finger scan readers.
