TUs oppose outsourcing workers in local bodies

AITUC Erode District Local Government Employees Union President S. Chinnaswamy and its administrators submitted a petition to Erode Corporation Commissioner Janaki Ravindran urging the government to reconsider a decision to privatise sanitation work in 20 corporations in the state as it would hit thousands of workers who were working for many years at low pay. 
 

They said the public would also be affected in different ways. 
All the unions including AITUC, CITU, LPF are fighting against this and demanding to abandon it. We have also given strike notice. 
 

During the conciliation talks held with the Municipal Corporation Mayor and Commissioner in person and in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, the strike was postponed to June 22.
Only 172 permanent posts are sanctioned in Erode Corporation. 
More than 1,000 permanent posts, including cleanliness workers posts, have been cancelled. 
It has been informed that in future these jobs will be filled on contractual basis through outsourcing. 
 

The decision would cause havoc in the life of the present daily wage laborers.  
Currently, more than 500 permanent workers and more than 1,200 daily wage workers are working in public health and sanitation in Erode Corporation. 858 cleanliness workers are planned to be posted when the contract is awarded to the private sector. 
As a result, more than 400 workers would lose their jobs, they feared.