The statewide sanitation workers’ strike completed 30 days on Friday with no sign of a breakthrough, as protesting employees intensified their agitation by shaving their heads to protest government notices threatening dismissal for failing to return to duty.
The employees had already extended the agitation till September 6 and announced plans to gherao the camp office of ULB minister Vipul Goel in Faridabad and other ministers and MLAs of the ruling party from September 5.
On Friday, the striking employees began a head-shaving protest, giving a message to the government as a response to what they termed “intimidation” and attempts to force workers back through punitive measures rather than resolving their demands.
The government has also adopted a tough approach against striking fire employees. In Rohtak, sanitation and fire employees accused the government of deliberately trying to break the strike and create divisions among workers. Municipal Sanitation Employees Union district president, Shambhu Tank, alleged that the administration was using coercive tactics instead of addressing employees’ grievances. He alleged that attempts were being made to impose unilateral decisions on workers to weaken the agitation.
Even as the state government’s September 5 return-to-work order has had no visible impact so far as sanitation workers stay off duty, as around 13,000 protesting sanitation workers made it clear that they will not end the strike until their demands are accepted. The government cited an August 18 Punjab and Haryana high court order mentioning that sanitation equipment and machinery were damaged during the agitation, with FIRs registered in some cases. A total of 24 workers have been dismissed, including 14 contractual employees and 10 engaged through the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN). Earlier, 14 permanent fire brigade employees were suspended and more than 1,200 fire personnel were issued notices to resume duty.
Tank said the government had promised regularisation of contractual employees in its election manifesto but failed to fulfil the commitment.
