The Madras High Court on Wednesday, August 20, refused to quash the resolution to privatise sanitation work. The court however told the Greater Chennai Corporation that it could not lower the workers’ pay.
Justice K Surendar disposed of petitions filed by the Uzhaippor Urumai Iyakkam seeking the quashing of the resolution passed by the Greater Chennai Corporation to privatise sanitation work in Zone 5 (Royapuram) and Zone 6 (Thiru Vi Ka Nagar).
The High Court allowed the privatisation resolution, but said that the workers' pay cannot be fixed at a rate below the minimum wage of Rs 793.
“The first respondent (Commissioner, GCC) ought to have ensured that the sanitary workers who would work for the Ramky would be paid the minimum wages and also their last paid wages by GCC, if not more for the time being. The sanitary workers were paid Rs 793 per day. Any reduction would adversely affect the budgeting of their day to day needs and would create problems for the workers and their families,” the order said.
The court added, “The sanitary workers are at liberty to agitate for their rights in accordance with the existing laws before the appropriate forum, though they agree to join the second respondent. Their status would be the same as on July 31 (last date of work under the GCC) for all purposes including proceedings before any court or any statutory body.”
The court held that the question of retrenchment did not arise, “since the service of the workers was not terminated as against the petitioner’s contention the GCC’s move amounted to retrenchment.”
Reacting to the judgement, the workers’ union put out a statement calling the judgement a victory and a “blow” to Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited and Sumeet Urbaser, the private companies in charge of sanitation work in 11 zones of the GCC.
Further, the statement also called for the application of the judgement to all zones of the GCC including the 10 previously privatised zones. “The Honourable Mr PK Sekarbabu and the Commissioner said that whatever is done in Zones 5 and 6 will reverberate in the other 10 zones. According to the judgement, the daily wage is Rs 761. ESI and PF at 16% amounts to Rs 121 per day. A bonus of 8.33% is Rs 63 per day. This means Ramky has to allocate a total of Rs 187 per worker per day in addition to the wage, bringing the total to Rs 948. Including leaves and gratuity, the total daily amount to be paid should be Rs 1,000. The court has ordered the Corporation to sign a new contract with Ramky based on this. If Ramky is to provide Rs 1,000 to the worker and the labour service charge is calculated as Rs 200, the Corporation must provide Rs 1,200 per person when signing the contract.”
In Chennai, sanitation workers had gone on strike starting August 1, demanding the rollback of the privatisation bid and permanency for waste collection.