CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has closed the appeal petitions filed by Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam, representing conservancy workers, following the submission of an agreement reached between the union and the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on absorbing the workers of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Royapuram zones into two other zones.
A joint memo, in this regard signed by GCC Commissioner J Kumaragurubharan and president of Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam advocate K Bharathi, was filed before the division bench of justices SM Subramaniam and C Kumarappan on Tuesday. It stated that the GCC has agreed to redeploy 1,400 SHG temporary sanitary workers of the fifth and sixth zones into fourth and eighth zones by the end of February 2026, as per the list provided by the union. Both sides have also decided to proceed with the original pleas filed before the Industrial Tribunal in Chennai, it said.
Recording the submissions, the bench closed the appeals, which were filed against the August 20, 2025, order of a single judge who refused to quash the GCC’s decision to outsource the conservancy works to a private agency. However, the judge had directed the GCC commissioner to negotiate with the agency to ensure the staff were paid the last drawn wages.
The workers staged a protest in front of the GCC headquarters from August 1-13 last year demanding the civic body to give up the decision to outsource. However, on August 13 midnight, they were removed from the place following an HC order. Still, the workers continued to protest in various places in the city, ending the agitation after 165 days once the government assured that their demands would be met.