Ally CPM lambasts Thiruma's stigma remark on cleanliness workers protest

CHENNAI: CPM state secretary P Shanmugam has strongly criticised VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan's opposition to the regularisation of cleanliness workers, terming his remarks "untenable" and "against the interests of contract labourers who lack legal protection."

In a video message, Shanmugam said trade unions across sectors consistently demanded implementation of the State government's law that grants permanency to employees completing 240 days of continuous service.

"This demand is not confined to cleanliness workers. Bus conductors, drivers, and other contract staff, too, deserve regularisation after 240 days. But successive governments have exploited temporary workers for years, denying them security and benefits. That is unjust. The demand raised by workers and unions is entirely lawful," he said.

Rejecting Thirumavalavan's argument that Ambedkar did not support regularisation, the CPM leader cited the example of a sanitation worker couple whose daughter, aided by their stable income and benefits as permanent staff, earned a PhD and is now a professor. "Without permanency, she too might have been forced into sanitation work. Wage security and legal benefits lift families out of this occupation and allow the next generation to access education and better jobs," he emphasised.

He clarified that no one was demanding hereditary employment in sanitation. "The demand is simply that existing workers be regularised and given due legal protection. That alone is just," he added, describing the positions of Thirumavalavan and Aadhi Thamizhar Peravai founder Adhiyaman as "wholly unacceptable."

The debate follows a 13-day sit-in by sanitation workers protesting the Greater Chennai Corporation's decision to privatise solid waste management in Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones.

Initially, in a statement on August 14, Thirumavalavan had backed the regularisation of sanitation workers statewide and opposed privatisation. But he later revised his stance, "It is not appropriate to tell them they must continue in the same job for life under the guise of security. Our struggle is to liberate them from degrading labour, not bind them to it."

Adhiyaman echoed this view, urging sanitation workers from Arundhatiyar and Adi Dravidar communities not to demand regularisation. "Even this generation must be rescued from this demeaning, hereditary occupation," he said.