Sanitary workers employed by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), and gram panchayats and municipalities around Telangana would benefit from a monthly pay raise of Rs 1,000.
More than one lakh sanitation workers around the State are expected to benefit from the action and receive a hike in their salary beginning in May 2023. The hike will be implemented right away, as per the declaration made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in the new Secretariat.
Rao also declared that the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) staff will soon receive raises in salary. The Finance Department has been given the go-ahead to put the same into effect.
A year ago, hundreds of GHMC sanitation workers organised a protest to demand the payment of their unpaid wages. At least 300 employees of the GHMC participated in the protest, which was held outside the commissioner’s office. They carried signs that criticized the chief minister and shouted protest slogans.
At the time, the president of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Employees Union (GHMEU) had demanded that the GHMC replace the biometric machines it had been renting with new ones it had purchased, in order to ensure that attendance is recorded accurately and that employees are not wrongfully denied pay because of malfunctioning equipment.
At a time when the CM had been discussing making outsourced workers permanent, about 700 existing staff members had been fired without being paid, which caused a great deal of resentment.