Pune: In a recent directive, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been advised by Assistant Labor Commissioner Nikhil Walke to ensure that contractors pay bonuses to the contractual workers employed across PMC departments.

This order comes as a response to reports of contractors failing to release bonuses to workers, despite PMC having paid these amounts to the contracting agencies.

The Labor Commission has stipulated that workers must receive bonuses for both the previous year (2022-23) and the current year (2023-24).

The directive was issued after a complaint by the National Labor Union to the Office of the Labor Deputy Commissioner, stating that contractors had not passed on the bonus payments allocated by the PMC.

During a hearing on this complaint, the PMC could not provide a valid reason for the non-payment of these bonuses.

In a previous attempt to address this issue, the Pune Labor Deputy Commissioner had ordered on November 3, 2023, that bonuses be paid to contractual employees for the fiscal year 2022-23.

The PMC’s Chief Labor Officer had subsequently notified the contractors to disburse these amounts to the employees. However, no bonuses were paid to the workers, leading the Labor Commission to declare this a violation of labor law.

In response, on October 24, 2024, Assistant Labor Commissioner Nikhil Walke issued a reminder to the PMC Commissioner Dr. Rajendra Bhosale, instructing the immediate release of the due bonuses for 2022-23 and 2023-24.

With approximately nine thousand contractual workers employed under various PMC departments, the Labor Commission’s directive aims to ensure compliance with labor laws and uphold workers' entitlements.