AFTER NO LOCKDOWN PAY FOR 250 BLIND WORKERSBMC ‘denied full salaries’ to
its disabled and older employees as wellCivic body’s affidavit in High
Court says paying full salaries to these employees will adversely affect
its finances

Mumbai Mirror 27-09-2020

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The BMC denied full salaries for the strictest lockdown phase to not just
its visually-impaired employees, but also to the physically disabled and
those above 55 years of age, who were exempted from attendance on health
grounds, an affidavit filed by the civic body before the Bombay High Court
indicates.

Vishwanath Jadhav, joint chief personnel officer of the establishment
section of the BMC’s General Administration Department, filed this
affidavit last week while opposing a public interest litigation (PIL) of
the well-known NGO National Association of Blind (NAB). The PIL seeks
payment of full salaries to 278 visually impaired BMC employees for the
period when the lockdown was implemented in its strictest form – March 23
to June 30.

The affidavit, defending BMC’s decision to not pay full salaries to the
visually impaired employees, refers to the money “the BMC may have to pay”
to the physically disabled as well.

It says, “If these categories of employees are granted special leave
without loss of pay, the respondent corporation will be required to pay
approximately Rs12.22 crore (Rs 2.75 crore for visually impaired employees
and Rs 9.47crore for other disabled employees).”

The next sentence specifies another category of employees which may seek
parity from the BMC if the court were to ask it to pay salaries for the
same period to the disabled employees.

The affidavit says, “Similarly, the corporation has granted relaxation in
attending duties to approximately 283 employees beyond 55 years of age
having health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure and dialysis
(for kidney ailments). Similar demand will be raised by these categories of
employees, even though they are not eligible, and if they are to be treated
according to the same principle, then the corporation will have to pay
approximately Rs 422.59 crore, which will adversely affect its financial
condition.”

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, appearing for the NAB, submitted before the court
that BMC had nullified its liability to the visually impaired employees
with retrospective effect, as its directive issued in March, only exempted
these employees from attending offices. However, a directive issued on May
26 said that the relevant period will be treated as “permissible leave.”

He said that while he had details of only one employee at the time of
filing the PIL, the NAB had managed to get details of more than 25
employees to show that it wasn’t just the salary for the relevant period,
which was affected, but the situation continues as the BMC was recovering
“arrears” of salary deductions from them, forcing them to work on zero or
extremely low pay.

The PIL cites the directives of the state government as well as the Centre
since March to show that they had exempted disabled employees from
attendance and one such directive said that they be treated on “leave
without loss of pay.”

Senior Advocate BV Bukhari, appearing for the BMC, submitted that the BMC
was not bound by the resolutions or notifications of the state or the
Central government, as it was a local self-government body.

He said that the BMC was not only following the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Act, but, in fact, was doing more than what other governments
were doing.

The court, however, questioned the BMC’s assertion that it was not bound to
follow the notifications of the state or the Central government, saying it
was doing so in certain other aspects related to the pandemic.

The court has reserved its judgment on the petition.

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