Solid waste management: Sanitary workers in Chennai protest privatisation, fear loss of rights, pay
Additionally, members of the association lamented that 10 zones had handed over the work to private contractors, and all had failed in their respective areas.
Sanitary workers protested GCC’s move on Tuesday
CHENNAI: As the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is all set to privatise solid waste management in two zones – Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar (zone 5 and 6), the Chennai Corporation All Department Employees’ Association (CCADEA), along with sanitary workers, staged a protest on Tuesday at Ripon Building.
S Purushothaman, CCADEA, told DT Next, “Sanitary workers under the Corporation are temporary workers. If the area is handed over to a private contractor, they might lose their jobs. When the civic body handed over the solid waste management to the private parties in several zones, within a few months, around 4,000 workers were laid off, most of whom were primary breadwinners.”
He also dismisses officials’ claims that private contractors would hasten the clean-up and garbage collection works in the city. “Private contractors would loot money through this,” opined Purushothaman. “To prevent that, we urge the Corporation authorities to reconsider and maintain solid waste management in these two zones within the local body itself.”
Additionally, members of the association lamented that 10 zones had handed over the work to private contractors, and all had failed in their respective areas.
“They focus only on the bus-route roads to clean and remove dumped garbage. They don’t clean the interior roads in the city. Also, irregular door-to-door garbage collection has been done after privatisation but sans supervision,” said M Sumathi, a sanitary worker at George Town in Royapuram (Zone 5).
Once the zone is privatised, workers are anxious about their salaries and their basic rights. “They will reduce our salaries, and will not allow us to even take sick leave,” she added. “After a few zones in north Chennai were handed over to a private contractor, we heard that salaries were deducted whenever workers took leave. Also, in some areas, workers are not provided with gloves and masks to clean. We want the Corporation to reconsider their decision and retain solid waste management in the Royapuram zone itself.”