KALLAKURICHI: Despite rendering nearly 15 years of continuous service, over 650 sanitation workers appointed to government social justice hostels, formerly known as Adi-Dravidar and Tribal welfare hostels, in 2012 for a consolidated monthly salary of Rs 2,000 have not been brought under the regular pay scale system. Stating this in a petition, M Subramanian, a sanitation worker employed at a hostel in Senthanadu at Ulundurpet taluk, has appealed to the Social Justice Minister Vanniyarasu to grant time-scale pay and job permanency to sanitation workers serving in government hostels. “We get paid Rs 250 per day even after 15 years of work. The government promises a minimum wage of Rs 700 for any work, but we are paid way less than that,” said Subramanian.
K Gandhi, secretary of the Vidivu Sanitary Workers Association, which works for the rights of sanitary workers social justice hostels, said to TNIE, “651 workers who joined service in 2012 earn roughly above Rs 6,000 - Rs 7,000 while 450 others (who joined after 2017) earn less than Rs 3,000 monthly salary. We have petitioned the previous governments but it was of no use. We request a revision of the pay and permanency of our posts.”
Subramanian also said that while daily wage workers in other government departments receive higher remuneration, sanitation workers in social justice hostels continue to receive too little to support their families. “Many workers are now between 50 and 55 years of age and have spent most of their working lives in service without job regularisation or fair wages,” he said. He alleged that successive governments failed to address their long-pending demands, leaving workers in severe financial hardship.
Granting regular pay scales would provide much-needed economic security and improve the living conditions of workers and their families, Subramanian said.
Official sources said that the petition will be taken up for departmental inquiry, followed by a necessary solution for the workers.