After salary cut, civic body to train staff on biometric system

The General Administration (GA) department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has arranged special training sessions to get civic employees used to the biometric attendance system. The newly introduced system has caused a lot of heartburn among the employees because despite presence their salaries have been deducted. It has been said that the system registers the timings wrong, and therefore, employees of various departments lose out on their salaries.

“We will ensure that the 18,000 employees whose salaries have been deducted get the remaining amount by March 9. For the next 20 days, we have arranged training sessions for the employees at BMC’s Worli training centre to clarify their doubts,” said Deputy Municipal Commissioner (GA), Sudhir Naik.

However, the BMC Workers’ Union has demanded delinking of the salaries to the system until the technical glitch is solved. The worst affected are from the civic hospitals — the nurses and ward boys, and the technical staff from ward offices who work in shift duties.

“The biometric attendance system will not stop. There needs to be discipline in work. Regarding delinking of salaries to the system, we will study the issues and submit a report to the Municipal Commissioner to take the call,” Naik said.

From July 2017, all 1.10 lakh BMC employees were told to compulsorily mark attendance through the biometric system.