For more than 40 years they have toiled away, meticulously scrubbing and cleaning toilets in southern India. However, astonishingly, two dedicated cleaners have only 64 pounds each to show for their four decades of working their fingers to the bone.
Akku and Leela Sherigar have earned an average of 180 rupees — or US$3.27 — a year. And for the last 11 years they have worked without pay following a dispute with their employer.
The two women, both aged 59, started working as toilet cleaners for the Government’s Women Teacher’s Training Institute in South India in 1971 for 15 Rupees a month as fresh-faced 18-year-olds.
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
But they have not had a pay rise ever since, even though they have never missed a day’s work. They have now applied to the Guinness Book of World Records for the title of the lowest salary in the world.
In 2001, they finally had enough and complained to the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal in Udupi. Then, their wages stopped altogether with no mention of any reimbursement. They still went into work cleaning 21 toilets, three times a day, seven days a week. And for the last 11 years, they have worked for free.
(Liberty Times)
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
逾四十年來，她們在南印度賣力工作，細心不苟地擦洗廁所。然而，令人驚訝的是，這兩名工作專一的清潔工，四十年來拼命幹活，僅各掙得六十四英鎊。
阿庫與莉拉．謝里加一年平均賺得一百八十盧比，或三點二七美元。而且，過去十一年來，在與雇主發生一場糾紛後，她們無酬工作。
這兩名同為五十九歲的婦女，一九七一年還是青春洋溢的十八歲時，以每月十五盧比的薪資，開始在政府的女教師訓練所擔任廁所清潔工。
然而自此她們未曾加薪，即使她們沒有一天不工作。現在她們申請金氏世界紀錄的全球最低薪資頭銜。
二○○一年，她們最後忍無可忍，向烏杜皮的卡納塔克邦行政法庭提出告訴。接著，她們的薪資在沒有任何補償下全部停發。然而，她們還是去上班，一週七天、一天三次打掃二十一間廁所。過去十一年來，她們沒有領到任何酬勞。
（自由時報／翻譯：魏國金）
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