Gurgaon: Sanitation and sewerage workers on Tuesday extended their strike by three days, citing the Haryana govt’s failure to issue orders on their demands, including regularisation of employees and an end to outsourcing. The unions warned that the strike would become indefinite if the govt does not act by Aug 21.The strike entered its 13th day on Tuesday, with hundreds of employees gathering outside the old MCG office. The protesters locked the main gate of the office between 9am and 11am and boycotted work. The other gate remained open for officials and the public. The protesters later marched through Agrasen Chowk and Aggarwal Dharamshala Chowk before reaching Siddheshwar Temple Chowk, where they burnt an effigy of Haryana urban local bodies minister Vipul Goel.According to Haryana Municipal Employees Union’s statement, protesters also had a heated argument and a brief scuffle with police during the gate-locking protest.The unions said their demands are part of a 17-point agreement reached with the state govt on May 13. The union’s state president Naresh Kumar Shastri said the agitation would continue across the state until the govt implements the agreement. He said this included its commitment to regularise around 13,000 municipal-roll employees working in municipalities, municipal councils and corporations and end the outsourcing of sanitation and sewerage work.Union leaders alleged that the govt had agreed to regularise these workers by June 30 but had not issued the required orders. They also claimed that the agreement provided for bringing contract workers onto departmental rolls.The unions questioned why sanitation and sewerage workers in urban local bodies continued to work through contractors despite, they claimed, a June 30, 2022 govt order providing for absorption of contract workers in various departments through the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam. They alleged that continued outsourcing left workers with low wages and insecure employment.The unions have now extended the strike through Aug 19, 20 and 21. They warned that it would be converted into an indefinite strike if the govt failed to act by Aug 21.Residents, meanwhile, said the strike had affected sanitation services. “We have not had any worker coming for manual sweeping of roads since the last 25 days,” said Lalit Suraj Bhola, a resident of Sector 9A. He alleged that a private sanitation contract had ended last month and that a proposal to deploy MCG workers in the area was approved before the strike began.
