COIMBATORE: Private players will start garbage collection work in three out of five zones in the city on a trial basis next week. According to sources, CCMC has awarded the contract to The Southern Solid Waste Management Services of Kanniyakumari for a period of one year which could be extended. The corporation will rent its fleet of garbage collection vehicles to the contractor.
Several sanitary workers associations condemned the decision to outsource work and flagged concerns regarding job loss, and salary cuts among others. Bharat Mazdoor Sangh’s general secretary S Stalin Prabhu told TNIE, “The civic body must withdraw its decision. Also, all sanitary labourers who have been working for several years for the CCMC should be made permanent.
Apart from that, the civic body must pay a gratuity amount to the sanitary workers for their years of service. They worked even during tough times like the pandemic. There is no clear information about the salary for the workers from the CCMC.”
Allaying their fears, CCMC commissioner M Prathap said, “There is nothing to fear as it is just a transition from one contractor to another. The 1,000 DBC (Dengue Breeding Checkers) workers, RRT (Rapid Response Team) workers and 2,500 odd permanent sanitary workers of CCMC will be assigned to other works such as park maintenance and school cleaning.”
“Hereafter, the contractor would be paid based not on the number of workers, but on the volume of segregated waste collected. About 80% weightage will be given for collection and 20% for segregation. For every 250 houses, one sanitary worker would be assigned. We have fixed a minimum wage for the workers. The private player can pay above that scale but not below. For one tonne of segregated waste collected, the civic body will pay Rs 3,140 to the contractor,” he explained.