Urging the State government to cancel all the government orders that allow local bodies to outsource sanitation works, members of the Erode District Rural Development Urban Local Body Workers’ Association, affiliated to CITU, staged a protest in front of the Corporation office here on Wednesday.
Led by its district president S. Subramanian, members said that over 1,700 workers in the corporation were involved in collecting garbage, cleaning residential areas, markets and bazaar streets, removing garbage, segregation of municipal solid waste and sending it for recycling. Also, workers were involved in mass cleaning campaigns and removing clogs in drainage channels. But the State government have decided to outsource all the work and the Municipal Administration Department have issued an order dated October 2, 2021. “We want all the government orders that permit outsourcing to be cancelled”, they said.
The members urged the local bodies not to reduce their wages than the minimum wage fixed by the district administration regularly. They also wanted jobs of all the temporary workers, including contract and daily wagers, to be regularised at the earliest. Though garbage collection is a major routine work every day, shortage of manpower is hindering the collection. Hence, the corporation that collects tax for garbage collection should appoint more workers, they urged.
Workers said that if their demands are not met, workers would go on strike across the State on January 24.