TIRUCHY: Sanitation workers are reporting to their zones on time as Corporation Commissioner S Sivasubramaian is regularly conducting surprise inspections in the mornings.
Sources said the regular inspections have streamlined their workings in many places.
According to sources, workers are now coming in uniform as nobody knows when and where the commissioner would visit on that day.
The commissioner is conducting the morning visits from 6 am to 7 am in many places with the most recent inspection in Ariyamangalam zone.
"Even we do not know which zone he would visit. The inspections have changed the attitudes of the workers and many are now reporting on time," an official said.
The civic chief also gained the support of workers as he increased their salaries on Friday. "We were demanding a salary hike for a long time as we were finding it hard to manage with Rs 360 per day. We conducted several protests demanding a salary hike. The corporation's decision to increase our pay is a great relief for us," a sanitation worker said.
Some workers also said the corporation should take steps to ensure they are paid on time. "Our major issue is our salary is delayed for most months. Since we were not getting the salary on time, some of us were not coming to work on time." a worker said.
Meanwhile, unions claimed salaries were hiked as a strike had been announced for Tuesday.
"We had requested the civic body to raise it to Rs 500 per day and announced a strike for November 26. Corporation officials recently held talks with us and increased salaries. We are not satisfied with the decision as the hike would come into effect only this month. We are demanding the increase should be with retrospective effect from April 2019 onward. We would have a meeting on this issue in the tahsildar's office on Monday," said Maran, a CITU leader.
Civic body sources are claiming unions are shifting the goalposts to gain the support of workers. "Sanitation workers are our ground-level employees that ensure the success of our clean city initiative. We have taken this measure to increase salaries to ensure the welfare of workers and several sanitation workers supported our decision. Unions are coming up with this demand to regain the support of workers," an official said.
Though it is unclear who is fishing in these troubled waters, the commissioner's move has led to a split among sanitation workers as a section is satisfied with his decision.
However, Monday's meeting is crucial for the civic body and workers as unions claimed they would go in for a strike if the authorities fail to agree with their demand.