Zero salary for visually impaired staff in lockdown, BMC told to reply to PIL
TIMES OF INDIA 29-08-2020 rosy.seque...@timesgroup.com Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday told BMC to respond to a public interest litigation that sought directions to the municipal body to treat the absenteeism of its disabled employees, particularly the blind and those with low vision, during the coronavirus-induced lockdown as special leave without loss of pay. A bench of Justices Amjad Sayed and Nitin Borkar heard the PIL by National Association for the Blind (NAB) which raised the issue of “around 250 blind and low vision employees” who got zero salary. On March 27, the Centre exempted government employees with disabilities from reporting for duty during the lockdown. On April 21, the state government issued a similar directive. But BMC’s May 25 circular directed that staffers with disabilities be granted leave which is permissible as per the Municipal Services Act. This means that if these employees have exhausted their sanctioned leaves, they will get no salary if they don’t report for work. The PIL stated that disabled employees are facing financial difficulties as they are not getting their salaries. Pointing out that people with disabilities, especially those who are visually impaired or have low vision, require assistance while travelling in trains or buses and even crossing the road, it added: “...due to Covid-19 apprehension, nobody is ready to touch a blind person even if he or she needs assistance.” NAB’s advocate, Uday Warunjikar, argued that with no conveyance facility provided by BMC, it’s difficult for these employees to reach office. He added that in April, the social justice and empowerment and finance ministries directed all public sector undertakings (PSUs) to exempt persons with disabilities from essential services and to treat their absence as special leave without loss of pay. Initially, Warunjikar said, a few PSUs had tagged it as ‘sick leave’. He submitted the salary slip of a BMC staffer who received zero pay in the lockdown months. Raising objection to the maintainability of the PIL, BMC’s advocate said it was filed by a trust and raised the grievance of only one employee. Warunjikar responded that “the PIL is in respect of 250 blind and lowvision employees who are getting zero salary”. Posting the next hearing after two weeks, the HC directed BMC to file its reply. TIMES VIEW: BMC’s policy cannot be at variance with other wings of the government. Since a decision has been taken at the national level that staff with disabilities can be exempted from attending office during the lockdown, BMC must comply with the directive. Given the need to maintain social distancing, visually impaired employees would find it difficult to cope, and it would be inhuman to deny them wages at such a time. -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to accessindia+unsubscr...@accessindia.org.in. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CADetga9JNptH1vC7kHObaVGo1fcPDGSqBkc2b391RhGGGKrTiQ%40mail.gmail.com.
