HC directs GCC to increase the salary for NULM sanitary workers

CHENNAI: In a slight relief to the sanitary workers who are working under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), a division bench of Madras High Court ordered the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to increase the daily wage paid to the workers from Rs.427 per day to Rs.500 per day.

The bench comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Sathyanarayana Prasad passed this direction as an interim relief to the sanitary workers and others. The court made this observation on hearing a writ appeal preferred by the GCC. The GCC challenged the order of a single judge dated January 7, 2022, directing the corporation to pay Rs 18,401 per month as the salary for the NULM workers.

When the matter was taken up by the bench, the corporation's standing counsel submitted that the GCC has to constitute a committee to finalize the salary and sought three months' time to complete the process.

Recording the submissions, the judges granted three months' time to GCC and passed an interim direction to the corporation to provide Rs.500 per day as the daily wage.

The case arose from a petition filed by K Bharathi, president of Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam. The petitioner sought direction from the court to the GCC to increase the wages for the NULM sanitary and conservancy workers. He sought equal pay for NULM workers on par with other sanitary workers and to remove the contractual nature of the job.

Therefore, a single judge directed the corporation to pay Rs. 18,401 as a fixed monthly salary for the NULM workers.