The KMC hopes the move will motivate the employees, including those who have shown reluctance, to wear uniform. Each employee will get Rs 7000 from this year.[break]
All the employees working for KMC are required to wear uniform as per the rules, but so far only the municipality police have complied.
The employees working at the Sanitary Department said that they use allowances to buy other clothes for themselves and their family members.
They complained that they abandoned the uniform as they are meted out discriminatory behavior because of the clothes.
“We feel humiliated on wearing the uniform,” Suresh Shrestha, General Secretary of All Nepal Sanitary Workers Union said, adding, “We are not allowed to wear uniform similar to the one worn by the employees of the administration department. That is a discrimination against us.”
He said employees with the sanitary department have decided not to wear the uniform until the administration allows them to wear uniform similar to other employees.
There are about 2,200 employees working at KMC. Among them 1,200 are working in the Sanitary Department. A KMC official said uniforms vary depending on the type of job employees hold.
“The uniform is for differentiating employees of one department from the other,” Chief of Environment Management Division of KMC Rabin Man Shrestha said, adding, “All the employees are required to wear uniform during the duty hour.”
He said the drivers, sanitary workers, municipality police, employees working at the administrative department all have different type of uniform. The KMC provides allowance for two pairs of uniforms, for winter and summer seasons.
“There is variation even in the uniforms worn by hospital employees,” Shrestha said adding, “Nurses, doctors, and the employees at cleaning department have different clothes, but they do not feel humiliated. I do not understand what made our employees feel that they have been discriminated.”
The employees working at KMC have refused to wear uniform since four years. The KMC started providing money after its employees complained about the quality of clothes.
The KMC has allocated a total of Rs 16.5 million as uniform allowance for its employees. The board meeting of the KMC recently took the decided to provide additional Rs 4, 000 to each employee as uniform allowance.
Related story
Nepal primed for bronze in men's singles and mixed doubles
_20191222200001.jpg)
