Sanitary workers attempted to besiege Coimbatore Corporation office, detained

New Indian Express

3 days ago

COIMBATORE: A day after Chennai Corporation's sanitary workers were detained by police following their 13 days protest, sanitary workers in Coimbatore attempted to besiege Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation's main office in Town Hall on Thursday, pressing charter of demands including making their job permanent. The protesting sanitary workers were detained by the city police and removed from the place.
The slew of demands by sanitary workers includes, making 5,000 daily wage sanitary workers job permanent, fixing the working hours as 7 am to 1 pm, implementing the minimum wage of Rs 770 per day, and giving compassionate ground appointment to the family members of deceased sanitary workers as announced in the DMK's election manifesto.
"Out of 8254 sanitary workers in Coimbatore Corporation, 5544 workers have been kept under the contract list since 2010. They are supposed to be paid Rs 23,100 as a wage per month. But, the private contract firms which have the contract are providing below Rs 16,100 per month. If the workers take leave, wage will be deducted for the days. Against it, we staged a protest on May 5 and staged a seven-day strike from June 9, 2025. In the negotiation by the corporation, it had asked a time for 40 days but they failed to keep the assurance," said ER Tamil Nadu Selvam, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Annal Ambedkar Sanitary Workers Union.
Due to the sanitary workers' protest announcement, a heavy police deployment has been made in front of the main office and several junctions to prevent their gatherings in the city.
Meanwhile, the city police detained around 40 functionaries and workers of trade unions near the CCMC office when they were attempting to gather in frontt of the office. Unionists claimed that many sanitary workers were dispersed two km radius from the CCMC office by the police.