Conservancy workers oppose outsourcing sanitation jobs

Members of the Erode District Rural Development Local Body Workers' Association staged a sit-in-protest on Collectorate premises here on Monday urging the Corporation to drop its move to outsource

Members of the Erode District Rural Development Local Body Workers' Association staged a sit-in-protest on Collectorate premises here on Monday urging the Corporation to drop its move to outsource sanitations works.

The workers said that of the 1,700 conservancy staff involved in sanitation works in all the 60 wards, over 1,200 are temporary workers who were paid consolidated wages. They were involved in cleaning residential areas, commercial complexes, markets and bazaar streets and removing garbage, segregation of municipal solid waste and sending it for recycling. Also, workers were involved in removing clogs in drainage channels. But it is learnt that the civic body had proposed to outsource all the works that was confirmed by a government order issued on October 2. The order asked local bodies to outsource all the works by appointing contractors so that the works of temporary workers need not be regularised.

The move has come as a shock to the temporary workers, who were demanding for job regularisation. “If the works were privatised, sanitation cannot be ensured in all the 60 wards”, they said.Also, they wanted the civic body to regularise the jobs of workers who have worked 480 days as temporary workers. Over 500 workers staged a sit-in-protest on the premises and the police held talks with them. Later, their representatives meet District Revenue Officer P. Murugesan who promised to hold talks over the issue. Later, the protest was withdrawn.