Thane civic body deposits Rs 7.56 lakh dues in accounts of 15 contract sanitation workers

Fifteen contract sanitation workers employed on jetting vehicles that clean sewer lines, septic tanks and chambers within the Thane Municipal Corporation limits have finally received their pending wages. After sustained efforts by the Shramik Janata Sangh union, the civic administration deposited a total of Rs 7,56,712 in the workers' bank accounts. The workers are said to be happy.

The workers' wages had allegedly been subjected to unlawful deductions by the contractor, M/s A.M. Ramchandani. It had also come to light that the workers were not being given annual paid leave or wages for that leave.

Jagdish Khairalia, general secretary of the Shramik Janata Sangh, calculated the shortfall in minimum wages and the wages due for paid leave. On the workers' behalf, he filed recovery claim no. 02/2025 under Section 20(2) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, at the office of the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Thane. Chetan Jagtap, Assistant Labour Commissioner and authority under the Act, issued an order on the claim on May 4, 2026.

Under the order, the contractor was to pay the 15 applicant workers Rs 3,78,356 as the difference in minimum wages. He was also asked to pay the same amount again, Rs 3,78,356, as compensation. The total of Rs 7,56,712 was to be paid within 45 days of the date of the order.

The order also said that if the contractor failed to comply within the stipulated period, the Thane Municipal Corporation, as principal employer, should pay the amount to the workers within the next 60 days.

After the union's persistent follow-up, the corporation discharged its responsibility under Section 21(4) of the Contract Labour Act. On October 27, it deposited a total of Rs 7,56,712 in the bank accounts of the 15 sanitation workers concerned. Each worker has received more than Rs 50,000 in dues.

Sunil Diwekar, secretary of the Shramik Janata Sangh, thanked the Thane Municipal Corporation on behalf of the union for paying the workers' dues.