Garbage piles up along MP Road in Dimapur on August 5 as Dimapur Municipal Council employees begin their indefinite ‘No Pay, No Work’ agitation over pending salaries for the past three months. Garbage remained unattended across the city on Tuesday with the issue yet to be resolved. (Morung Photo)
‘No Pay, No Work till salaries are cleared’
Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 5
Employees of the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) are on agitation mode, once again, over withheld salaries. The DMC Employees Welfare Union (DMCEWU) began what they asserted was an indefinite ‘No pay, No work’ agitation. An estimated 430 employees, including the crucial sanitation workers, ceased work on August 5 in protest against unpaid salaries pending for three months.
The agitation had garbage unattended all across town on Tuesday.
The DMC responded by calling an emergency meeting of the councillors, and forming a ‘Core Committee’ headed by the chairperson to look into the demand of the aggrieved employees.
“We have formed a Core Committee consisting of 12 councillors, headed by the chairperson as convener, to look into the grievances of the employees,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Thungchanbemo Tungoe, told the media. The CEO, who will also be a member of the committee, informed that it will also look into other aspects, including irregularities in revenue collection.
Besides, releasing of delayed salaries, the agitating employees are demanding other benefits like provident fund, life insurance and gratuity, and rationalising the employees’ duty roster.
While the DMC chairperson was not available for comment, the CEO, citing decision taken at the councillors meeting, announced clearing of the pending three months salaries by August 20.
By the end of September, work assignments will reportedly be restructured and streamlined. According to the CEO, a detailed duty roster will be created to ensure all employees are fulfilling their responsibilities.
The DMC has under its payroll 436 employees at present. It was not revealed by the CEO, but the DMC’s total sanctioned posts stands at 260. It was informed that an estimated Rs 2 cr is required to clear the existing three months salaries backlog.
The CEO further informed that, starting October 2025, all benefits for DMC staff, including EPF, gratuity, and Group Life Insurance, will be credited regularly and on time.
He added that the assurance will be conveyed in written to the DMCEWU the day itself.
The assurance, however, did not sit well with the employees of the sanitation wing, assembled at the old DMC office in Kalibari Road, alongwith other establishment staff. The field personnel of the sanitation wing bear the brunt of waste collection and disposal, daily, on miserly pays. They maintained that they will resume work only and when their pending salaries are cleared.
Commotion ensued, slogans were raised. The CEO had to come in person to announce the decision taken at the meeting of councillors but to no avail. The DMCEWU executives subsequently announced that they will continue with the cease work agitation until their core demands are met by the DMC.
Protests by DMC employees over unpaid salaries have become regular features over the years. As recent as February-March, this year, salaries, pending since October 2024, were disbursed only after the employees warned of a cease work agitation.
At the press briefing, the CEO declined to respond to queries related to the DMC’s revenue target and actual collection, while also refusing to confirm the actual total of sanctioned posts.
