Nine months ago, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) terminated the jobs of 560 contract conservancy workers — without notice — during a pandemic. These workers, however, did not give up. For the past nine months, they have been fighting for fairness from the civic body. On Monday, September 13, the group protested on the Marina beach, demanding their jobs back or adequate compensation. Many of them who lost their jobs had worked during the first wave of COVID-19 infections in 2020, and 90% of them were women.
In January this year, these civic workers were abruptly terminated from service as the corporation privatised garbage collection in 11 out of 15 zones. While solid waste collection in zones 9-15 has been taken up by Spanish firm Urbaser SA, in four zones, including Anna Nagar, a waste collection contract has been handed over to Ramky Enviro Engineers, an environmental services company in India. The companies absorbed a few hundred of the contract workers, while other contract workers, who had been employed under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission, were fired.
TNM spoke to some of the terminated civic workers who were terminated. For them, job loss has translated into not being able to pay rent, school fees or simply earn enough. It has hit them and their families hard.
“I have stopped sending my sons to school as I am no longer able to pay the school fee for four terms now (2020 and 2021). Now they sit at home without education,” says Lakshmi, 35, a contract sweeper who had been working in Zone 8, Thiru Vi Ka Park. “My boys were going to a private matriculation school. We had approached the school to get their transfer certificates to enrol them in a government school. But we were told that we had to pay all the dues to get the certificate,” she alleges.
Both Lakshmi and her husband Ramesh, who collected solid waste in the same zone, were employed under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) and lost their jobs in January 2021. The NULM is a Union government initiative to provide livelihood opportunities to reduce poverty among the urban poor households by giving them access to self-employment or skilled wage employment opportunities.
“We used to earn Rs 12,000 each and be able to afford our children’s education, house rent and sundry expenses. Now we cannot buy anything that our children need. We can’t even pay their school fees. We haven’t paid our house rent for nine months now,” Lakshmi says. Ramesh now goes to work as a cleaner in a small restaurant on the Poonamalle High Road and Lakshmi works as a domestic worker. However, the couple has only managed to earn less than half of what they were making while working for the GCC.
Many of the terminated civic workers had also served the Chennai Corporation for 10 years or more. “We were told that we would be made permanent employees of the corporation within three months. But instead, we got laid off,” she says.
Mariamma, 45, is another civic worker who lost her contract job in January 2021. Back home, she is the sole breadwinner of her family. She has two college-going children, an aged mother and a diabetic husband to take care of.
“I don’t have to worry about the rent as we have been fortunate to have our own place. But my children and mother depend on me for their expenses. And I have not been able to find any satisfactory job after losing my job with the Chennai corporation,” says Mariamma, who worked as a cleaning/sweeping staff in Zone 8 of the Chennai Corporation.
When she lost her job, Mariamma opened a food stall next to her house in Pullapuram, Kilpauk. “However, the business was erratic. I would make money some days and not have any visitors on the other days. Within a few months, I had to close down the stall as I tested positive for coronavirus,” she explains.
The 45-year-old had to run to different government hospitals to seek treatment. “I had to run from Omandurar, which had all beds full, to Kilpauk Medical College and other hospitals. Finally, I went to a private hospital, where I received treatment for free, thanks to some good samaritans who sponsored my health care,” she says
According to P Srinivasulu, General Secretary of Madras Corporation Red Flag Union (a labour union comprising permanent conservancy workers of GCC), there are over 17,000 contract civic workers employed by the GCC. While the permanent staff of the civic body enjoy benefits such as higher salaries and dearness allowance, the contract workers can lose their jobs with no prior notice.
“We, the union, stand in solidarity with the 560 contract workers who lost their jobs. We will lend them whatever support we can and continue to demand justice from the corporation,” Srinivasulu said.