5,000 sanitary workers keep off work, seek wage hike

Over 5,000 sanitary workers on contract in the city Corporation on Tuesday began an indefinite strike in front of their office. They demanded regularisation of their jobs and increase in the wages, sources in the union of the workers said. Over 1,000 tonnes of garbage, particularly remnants of fire- crackers which were burst on Monday during Deepavali, piled up on due to the strike, the sources said.

The workers withdrew their strike a few days ago after Collector G S Sameeran and Corporation Commisioner M Prathap assured them to look into the matter and recommend to the Tamil Nadu government to increase the wages, they said. Last Wednesday, the Corporation passed a resolution which stated that the civic body would write to the government on the issue.

This was not accepted by the workers and various unionists they called for a strike today, they said. The workers boycotted work and gathered in front of the Corporation office and raised slogans in support of their demands, they added.