Industrial court to BMC: give promotions to 3,500 fire brigade employees

About 3,500 employees of Mumbai fire brigade will receive promotions pending since 2001 following an industrial court verdict in their favour.

A union of fire brigade employees in 2009 moved court against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation after the then-municipal commissioner refused to promote them with effect from the base year of August 1, 2001. In so doing, the municipal commissioner overruled a BMC standing committee resolution in favour of implementing the promotions.

Prakash Devdas, general secretary, Mumbai Municipal Employees Union, said, "The standing committee of BMC had cleared the proposal to implement promotions from August 2001. The then-municipal commissioner refused to grant promotions from that period, saying that the corporation had no money. Instead, he agreed to give promotions from the base year of July 2007. This way he wanted to save Rs. 116 crore. It was not acceptable to us, so we knocked on the doors of the industrial court." Now, BMC will have to pay the remaining 116 crore to the fire brigade employees.

Devdas said, "The standing committee has statutory powers. Its decision has to be implemented by the BMC administration. The municipal commissioner has no power to overrule the standing committee's decision."

Advocate Gyanmurti Sharma, Chairman, BMC law committee, said, "It has been observed in the past that municipal commissioners have flouted the orders of the standing committee as per their whims and fancy. They are not empowered to do so as per BMC rules. This verdict is an eye-opener for them. It tells them to avoid similar actions in future, so to avoid the wrath of the judiciary. Now, they should implement the verdict as early as possible so to avoid contempt of court."