VELLORE: Sanitary workers (outsourced) attached to Vellore Corporation working at the Vellore New Bus Stand (Zone IV) have alleged that the ‘mestri’, who supervises their work is marking them ‘present’ in the attendance sheets even when they are on leave. The supervisor then demands that the Corporation pay him for those days once the workers’ monthly salaries get credited to their bank accounts.
They further claimed that they have not been getting their full salaries. This has been the scenario for the past one year, the workers claim. To substantiate their allegations, they referred to a worker who worked for 30 days in June who should have been paid `5,400 (`180 per day excluding Employee State Insurance and PF as salary). The worker, however, only received `2,200. The same complaint is also true for 29 other ‘outsourced’ workers who they allege are not getting paid their full salary amounts.
When the workers confronted the ‘mestri’, Kumar, he reportedly told them that he has no control of the amount of salaries being credited and asked them to check with the sanitary inspector (SI). When Zone IV SI, Sivakumar, was approached by the workers, he told them that there is probably a mistake made by the Corporation and assured them that he would help to reimburse the remaining amounts.
Most of the sanitary workers are uneducated. “We are uneducated and people like Kumar and Sivakumar are using us to make a quick buck,” said a woman worker in anger.
Workers said that contractor, Harivalagan, assured the workers that they would get their full salaries but has apparently changed his mind after meeting with the sanitary inspector and officials in the Corporation.
Workers even claimed that some workers have left their jobs long ago, but Kumar continues to mark them as ‘present’ and once their salaries are credited to their bank accounts, he collects the money from them.
“Our repeated complaints to Corporation officials are in vain and we believe that everyone is hand-in-glove from the lowest level employees to higher officials in the local body,” added the woman worker.
Neither City Health Officer, Vasanth Diwakar nor Sivakumar were available for comment. A health official in the Corporation said that biometric machines with face readers would prevent people like Kumar from che-ating the local body. Criminal action should be taken against all the perpetrators.